Known for his ethereal paintings, Hiroshi Sugito draws from the environment, ranging from his own gestures to the weather and daily studio routines, creating absorptive vessels for what is outside the picture. Time is an essential component of his practice, as each painting undergoes a prolonged process of reflection and sedimentation in the studio, gradually accumulating meaning and form. Defined by layered pigment and a hazy, delicate palette with acidic overtones, his works often feature recurring shapes that suggest landscapes or still lifes, inhabited by floating forms reminiscent of sails and canoes, houses, skewed buildings, and drapery. Sugito also incorporates vintage frames into some of his paintings, a resource that informs both the motifs and painterly elements within the canvas and imbues them with theatrical allusions. This tampering with framing devices and the artist’s incorporation of collagistic techniques with paper challenge conventional uses of medium and format.

Among his recent solo exhibitions are candy wrap, Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, São Paulo, Brazil (2025); Remainder, Lulu, Mexico City, Mexico (2023); Hiroshi Sugito module or lacuna, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Japan (2017); particles and release, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi, Japan (2016); prime and foundation, Miyagi Museum of Art, Miyagi, Japan (2015) and frame and refrain, Musée Bernard Buffet, Shizuoka, Japan (2015). The artist has recently taken part in the group shows MINEBANE! Contemporary Art – The Taguchi Art Collection, Akita Museum of Art and the Akita Senshu Museum of Art in Japan, Akita, Japan (2025); With Me Now: The People and the Surroundings in My Art, Bernard Buffet Museum, Shizuoka, Japan (2025); How Did You Come into the World?, Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art, Aomori, Japan (2024); Does the Future Sleep Here?, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Japan (2024)