The glowing paintings of Masaaki Sasamoto are drenched with gold and a mellow, old-world radiance. Butterflies, fairies and other mythical beings, girl-automatons with exposed machinery, flowers, winged seraphic figures, are common motifs in his work. The mildly serene and rather enigmatically inexpressive smiles of his subjects seem to emanate a nature half-deity, half-doll. Sasamoto combines traditional Japanese techniques with modern aesthetics in a unique, luminous, memorable style that evokes antiquity, a fantastical air, an atmosphere slightly surreal and wondrously airy yet rich.
