Kazuya Sakai
(Buenos Aires, 1927 - Dallas, USA, 2001)
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Informalism in Argentina
Kazuya Sakai
 
He is educated in Japan, where he studies literature and philosophy at the Waseda University, in Tokyo. In 1951 he returns to Argentina and having started painting on his own, he holds his first individual exhibit at the La Cueva Gallery in 1952. In 1957 he takes part in the Siete pintores abstractos (Seven abstract painters) exhibition. In 1962 he holds an individual exhibition for the last time in Buenos Aires.
A year later he moves to New York, where remains until 1965. He then moves to Mexico where he resides for a long time, until he returns back to the US in 1988. During that period he held a lot of exhibitions in Mexico, US, Spain and Costa Rica. He gradually abandons gestural painting in Mexico to lean towards abstract geometric forms, of brilliant chromates, syncopated rhythms and tilted traces in Fugue. He joins Octavio Paz’ team and is one of the founders of Plural Magazine, where he becomes chief of staff and artistic director (1972-1976). He is a Japanese translator and university professor. Apart from Argentine museums, his work can be found at Museo de Arte Moderno in Tokyo, Japan; Rio de Janeiro and Bahia, Brazil and the University of Austin Museum, Texas.