August 27 — December 14, 2025
Spruance Gallery
Guest Curator: Cynthia H. Veloric, PhD
Arcadia Exhibitions is pleased to present “Hiro Sakaguchi: Landscapes of a Restless Mind” from August 27 through December 14, 2025 in the Spruance Gallery.
Recommission of a Battleship, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 40” x 30”. Courtesy of the artist.
Curated by Cynthia H. Veloric, PhD, this show contains drawings and paintings surveying the entirety of this well-regarded Philadelphia artist’s career.
From Cynthia H. Veloric’s curatorial essay
Hiro Sakaguchi has spent the last thirty years witnessing, recalling, and re-interpreting a world in literal flux. Born in Japan and living in the Philadelphia region since the 1990s, by all appearances he is a calm, thoughtful, reticent man. This outer solemnity stands in stark contrast to the intricacy, intensity, and chaos of his speculative landscapes – amalgams of locales and objects drawn from memories of his childhood and his global wanderings.
Whether working on smaller compositions on paper or large-scale canvases, Sakaguchi’s paintings and drawings reveal an inner restlessness through highly complex compositions, combinations of bold colors, and sharp ecological commentary that are simultaneously dark and playful. Regardless of scale, the audience becomes enveloped in Sakaguchi’s inner world as they attempt to unravel the complexity of his vision.
Though grounded locally, the artist does not feature his daily environment. Rather, what surfaces are his memories of and his emigration from Japan. Though transportation vehicles—planes, boats, cars, and trains carry numerous connotations in his oeuvre, they mostly represent escape and travel. Airplanes stand ready on the ground to whisk him away, or they carry him on their wings while in flight.
Childhood toys play a prominent role in Sakaguchi’s imagery and carry multivalent associations. At times they are sprinkled playfully across a cheery landscape; other times they turn into armaments. A model battleship may become a peaceful Noah’s ark complete with animals, swing sets, and gardens. Yet ecological chaos can emanate from tanks, missiles, cargo ships, airplanes, cars, nuclear reactors, and oil rigs, draining the earth of natural resources, creating toxic waste, and contributing to CO2 emissions.
Whether presenting catastrophic landscapes or visions of a personal utopia, Sakaguchi overlays them all with candy-colored paint washes. This beauty obfuscates potential risks and contributes to a sense of optimism and joy.
An opening reception will be held on September 4, 2025 from 4:00 – 7:00 PM, where both the artist and the curator will be available to discuss the show and answer questions. On November 5, 2025 a gallery talk featuring Sakaguchi and Veloric will take place beginning at 6:00 PM. Light refreshments will be available and both events are free and open to the public.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Hiro Sakaguchi was born in Nagano, Japan and grew up in Chiba City, near Tokyo. He was born as a twin. He moved to the United States in the 1990’s to study art at the University of the Arts (BFA) and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (MFA). He currently has a studio and resides in Lansdowne, a close suburb of Philadelphia, PA.
Sakaguchi has had numerous solo and group exhibitions, having shown at various venues internationally such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Secession Museum, Austria, the Mori Museum, Tokyo, and the KIASMA Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki, Finland. Sakaguchi has also exhibited at PULSE art fair in Miami and at the Melbourne Art Fair in Australia, both with Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo.
In 2011 Sakaguchi exhibited his first museum solo show, No Particular Place to Go, at the Morris Gallery of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. His 2014 / 2015 solo exhibition, Avert, Escape or Cope With, at the Delaware Center for Contemporary Art was reviewed in ART NEWS, June 2015. In 2015 Sakaguchi exhibited a two-person show at Nancy Margolis Gallery, NYC, alongside Anne Canfield. In 2019, he participated in the Philadelphia Fine Art Fair through Seraphin Gallery, Philadelphia.
Artworks by Hiro Sakaguchi can be found in both public and private collections internationally including the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia. He has representation at Seraphin Gallery in Philadelphia, Galerie Heubner & Heubner in Frankfurt, and Nancy Margolis Gallery in New York.
