青幻舎 SEIGENSHA Art Publishing

The sewing machine represents many things: the Industrial Revolution, the decline of handiwork, gender perceptions. Using this multivalent tool, Aoyama Satoru (1973–) fashions humorous and satirical works capturing the many issues and contradictions that surround us in this world. The beginnings of his oeuvre reach back to his study of textile art at Goldsmiths, University of London, where—over his time as a man in a program made up of 90 percent women students—he cultivated an awareness not only of art, but of the labor and feminist issues underlying textiles.

In today’s society, where technology grows ever dominant and AI seems poised to supplant humans, Aoyama’s world speaks to us with quiet, yet profound insight. This collection, the artist’s first, brings together a selection of roughly 150 works created over twenty years from early to most recent, enriched throughout by Aoyama’s own commentary.

Aoyama Satoru, born in 1973 in Tokyo, grew up in an art-rich environment thanks to the influence of his grandfather, a Nika Association painter. He graduated in textiles from Goldsmiths, University of London, in 1998 and earned an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2001. Using a 1940s industrial sewing machine, he produces a prolific body of artworks that probe the ever-shifting value of labor and of humanity. In recent years he has also actively branched out into other work, including holding art seminars and student workshops.