DIVERSITY IN DEVELOPMENT

ARTIST STATEMENT
My art is an expression of an idea, while seeking to investigate the possibilities of text based forms. I am interested in the epistemological problems of abstraction, myths, nature of reality, and aesthetic meditation. Often manipulating the structure of books from a sequential order to a spatial order, and creating a space for change, layering, and appropriation of images to make symbolic use of its objects.

The process involves using a Xerox printing machine, a mathematic formula, and Cartesian grid system, layering histories and images taken out of context, and re-contextualized to harbor a sense of meaning which instigates a search for the one “true” meaning of the work.

BIO
Mike Saijo uses an innovative process applying Xerox technology and pages from discarded books to create what can be viewed as post-modern conceptual painting. He juxtaposes textual fields with imagery of personal and historical significance often selected by an intuitive process. Saijo explores the notions of “distant reading” by manipulating the book from a sequential order to a spatial order and opens up the possibilities of interpretation. His constructions are derived from Ludwig Wittgenstein’s idea of  ’colloquial language’ that every sense can be expressed without having an idea how what each word means just as one speaks without knowing how single sounds are produced.

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Education

Pasadena Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA 1998

Pasadena City College Pasadena, CA Graphics Design/Fine Art 1994

Awards and Honors

2007             Columbia University Medical Center, Community Relations, New York, NY

2006             2nd Annual International Artists Festival in Thailand, Bangkok

2006            28th Annual Wallworks Juried Competition LA Artcore, LA Brewery Annex, Los Angeles, CA

2005            Public Art RFQ LAPD Headquarters, LA County Cultural Affairs Department, Los Angeles, CA

Solo Exhibitions

2008            Corpus Xeroxysm 4, LA Artcore Brewery Annex, Los Angeles, CA

2007            Corpus Xeroxysm 3, Tompkins Square Library, East Village, NY

2005            Corpus Xeroxysm 2, INRI Studios, Los Angeles, CA

2004            Corpus Xeroxysm 1, 611 Studio, Los Angeles, CA

Group Exhibitions

2008            3000 Worlds in a Moment, LA Artcore, Brewery Annex.

Los Angeles, CA

2007            Cheap and Plentiful, curated by Mark Cousin, 207gallery,

Inwood, NY

2007            History of Conspiracy, curated by MSaijo, 207gallery, Inwood, NY

2007            Gen Arts Biscuit Company Loft Building, Los Angeles, CA

2007            Micro Gestalt, curated by Airom Bleicher, 207gallery, Inwood, NY

2007            Orange County Museum of Agriculture and Nikkei Heritage,

Cal State Fullerton, CA

2007            Micro Gestalt, Orphanage Gallery, Silverlake, CA

2006            Two Person Exhibition, Gallery A, Los Feliz, CA

2006            LA Artcore Annual Benefit Auction Union Art Center Los Angeles, CA

2006            Winter Show, 207gallery, Inwood, NY

2006            Lust for Life, 207gallery, Inwood, NY

2006            University of Technology Bangkok, Thailand

2006            Ramajangala University of Technology Rattanakosin Pho Chan Campus 2nd Annual International Arts Festival Thanvaburi, Bangkok

2006            Best in Show, deSotoGallery, Los Angeles, CA

2006            Synthetic Zero, Bronx, NY

2006            Broken Art Long Shadow, 3 Person Show, Kristi Engle Gallery,

Los Angeles, CA

2006            deSoto Gallery, Art LA, Santa Monica, CA

2005            Winter Salon, Java Studios, Brooklyn, NY

2005            deSoto Gallery, PhotoNY, Metropolitan Pavilion, NY

2005            LA Artcore Wallworks Competition, Brewery Annex, Los Angeles, CA

2005            LA Artfest, Sci-Arc Campus, Los Angeles, CA

2005            MJ Higgins Fine Art Landscape Exhibition Los Angeles, CA

2005            MJ Higgins Fine Art Marilyn Exhibition Los Angeles, CA

1993            Pasadena City College Art Gallery, Pasadena, CA

Bibliography

Shelter Magazine, 2007

“Upper Manhattan Art Stroll,” Mike Fittelson, Manhattan Times, 2007

“Westside,” The Spirit, August 30, 2007.

“Pollock Equation,” Carla Zanoni, New York Times, August 19, 2007

New York Magazine Art Candy, on-line publication, July 2007.

Manhattan Times, Inwood Edition, by Mike Fittelson, July 12-July, 2007.

Los Angeles Magazine, Design Issue 2007.

Let Go, Magazine Issue #2, 2007.

At Home Magazine, 2006.

2nd Annual International Arts Festival in Thailand, Catalog Summer 2006.

“Canvassing the Future,” Lifescape Magazine, 2006.

Art LA Catalog, January 2006.

“Mike Saijo 90,” Mia Taylor, The Book LA, Spring 2005.