Widely known as a “Romantic conceptualist,” Sasaki’s many projects, videos, photographs, performances, objects and installations often revolve around trying to reach dubious goals through perversely optimistic means. Sasaki seems to court failure as a richer, more revealing outcome than the soundest of victories. His tragicomic endeavours, ridiculous as they might be, are propelled by a warm, positivist worldview, particularly if the works involve, as they often do, a collaborative audience or cohorts willing to work towards whatever absurd (or noble) premise the artist has set his studied sights upon. The humour and fallibility embedded in his various works are anchored by a methodical, reasoned approach, in the same vein as the sight gags and complex scenes in a Buster Keaton film. In Sasaki’s hands, expectation and outcome never seem to align, generating a simultaneous sense of pathos and levity.
Jon Sasaki’s work has been exhibited in solo exhibitions at the Ottawa Art Gallery; the Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge; the Art Gallery of Ontario, as well as a 2015 performance project at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. Sasaki has participated in recent group exhibitions at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul; Platform Art Spaces, Melbourne; Nihonbashi Institute of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; and the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto. He has completed recent public art commissions for Sheridan College, Oakville, and the City of Barrie, Ontario, and - along with collaborator Jennifer Davis - was the recipient of a 2017 Concepts award from the Ontario Association of Architects. He was the recipient of the 2015 Canadian Glenfiddich Artists in Residence Prize (Dufftown, Scotland.) Sasaki holds a BFA from Mount Allison University, Sackville, NB.
Jon Sasaki’s work has been exhibited in solo exhibitions at the Ottawa Art Gallery; the Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge; the Art Gallery of Ontario, as well as a 2015 performance project at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. Sasaki has participated in recent group exhibitions at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul; Platform Art Spaces, Melbourne; Nihonbashi Institute of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; and the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto. He has completed recent public art commissions for Sheridan College, Oakville, and the City of Barrie, Ontario, and - along with collaborator Jennifer Davis - was the recipient of a 2017 Concepts award from the Ontario Association of Architects. He was the recipient of the 2015 Canadian Glenfiddich Artists in Residence Prize (Dufftown, Scotland.) Sasaki holds a BFA from Mount Allison University, Sackville, NB.
