Mamoru Sakagawa is a prominent contemporary Japanese painter, renowned for his vivid use of color and a style that blends abstraction with figuration. His work merges elements of Abstract Expressionism with popular culture, employing diverse materials such as acrylic, wax, rubber, and glue-based paints to create compositions that occupy a space between the concrete and the deconstructed. Early in his career, Sakagawa explored corporeality in his Rocks series, depicting exaggerated human forms with detailed muscles and skin textures, conveying both physical tension and the viewer’s psychological response to the body. Around 2005, his focus shifted to internal structures like blood vessels and nerves, which he translated into abstract compositions of interwoven lines and transparent layers, evoking the inner rhythms and energies of life.

In recent years, Sakagawa has turned to more symbolic and metaphorical subjects, including toys, plush animals, playground equipment, and candy. Through physical interventions such as crushing, kneading, and pressing, he deconstructs and reconstructs these images, creating compositions that are simultaneously playful and grotesque. He refers to this process as Press, reflecting both the material act of pressing and the interplay between perception, memory, and the external world. His paintings combine saturated, flowing colors with rich textures and the fusion of abstraction and figuration, generating a visual language that resonates emotionally and physically.

Since 2004, Sakagawa has presented numerous solo exhibitions with Kodama Gallery, including Press (2010, Kyoto), The Final Day is Coming! (2017, Tennoz, Tokyo), and Grapevine (Shirokane, Tokyo). Retrospectives such as SAKAGAWA MAMORU Retrospective Exhibition (2014, Tokyo) and WORKS 2001–2010 (2010, Tokyo) review his creative evolution over the decade. He also participated in a 2001 group exhibition at Gallery Nomart with artists including Kohei Nawa. Through his continually evolving visual language, Sakagawa investigates the boundaries between life, the body, and the world, making painting a tangible, sensorial, and reflective experience.