ART IN THE PARK: SHUN SUDO
“HANA-MI”
Exhibition, 2026
What I depict are landscapes alive with flowers —
visions drawn from places I have encountered around the world,
and from the blossoms that happened to flourish in those fleeting moments.
Such moments, so easily overlooked, will never return.
By capturing the fragments etched in my memory,
I seek to transform them through painting into scenes that endure.
My relationship with Ginza Sony Park began even before its 2025 opening,
through a series of collaborative projects.
Each occasion deepened my sense of resonance with this place.
Here, activity and openness coexist,
creating a space where people connect with the city and with one another.
This ideal closely aligns with my own artistic aspirations.
For this exhibition, created in partnership with Ginza Sony Park,
I recognize a significant and meaningful challenge.
In this park in Ginza, where people from across the globe come together,
I have created a space adorned with flowers painted by my own hand.
Through this work, I aimed to convey the beauty of hanami
— one of Japan’s most cherished cultural traditions —
in a manner that is true to my own perspective.
If the scenery found only here touches the hearts of those who visit Ginza,
nothing would bring me greater joy.
SHUN SUDO
This exhibition highlights the current artistic position of SHUN SUDO, an artist who continues to carve his own path in contemporary art.
Influenced in part by his mother—who enjoyed drawing when he was young—he was exposed early on to oil painting. Although he experimented with oils in his youth, the true turning point in his artistic development occurred during his travels around the world. Encounters with the works of Western masters such as Van Gogh, Cézanne, and the Impressionists left a profound impact, inspiring the direction of this exhibition.
At the same time, SUDO’s work is also deeply rooted in street art and pop culture. Through his acrylic paintings—marked by bold, energetic contour lines—he established a distinctive and highly recognizable style of his own. However, driven by a desire to expand his expressive range, SUDO made a conscious decision to creatively break from his established imagery. Drawing on distant memories of oil painting techniques from his childhood, he embraced the challenge of working in oils once more. This exhibition, therefore, represents a new phase in his practice, where the rich experience accumulated through acrylic painting merges and blossoms within his renewed approach to oil painting.
As is widely known, SUDO’s “Button Flower” motif—filled with vibrant, positive energy—has already become a signature of his acrylic work. In this exhibition, the motif remains central yet is reinterpreted through his evolving oil painting technique. Although only a few years have passed since SUDO began working seriously in oils, he has quickly developed a unique style, guided by his strong artistic sensibility. Evidence of this can be seen in how the crisp, dynamic lines characteristic of his acrylic paintings have softened into more ambiguous, blended contours in his oils. This shift adds depth, richness, and new variety to his expression.
The level of abstraction in SUDO’s paintings varies, but each work demonstrates a high degree of completion and quality. His ongoing experimentation—where the experiences of acrylic and oil painting both collide and fuse—suggests that he is in the midst of a creative transition. At the same time, the works evoke the sense that he is genuinely enjoying this experimentation, almost as if he has returned to the joy and curiosity of his childhood. Taken together, these elements make clear that this exhibition marks a particularly significant moment in SHUN SUDO’s artistic journey as a contemporary artist.
Cultural Studies Scholar – Hiroki Yamamoto
DATES : March 7 – March 29, 2026
VENUE : Ginza Sony Park
ART IN THE PARK: SHUN SUDO
“HANA-MI”
Exhibition, 2026
What I depict are landscapes alive with flowers —
visions drawn from places I have encountered around the world,
and from the blossoms that happened to flourish in those fleeting moments.
Such moments, so easily overlooked, will never return.
By capturing the fragments etched in my memory,
I seek to transform them through painting into scenes that endure.
My relationship with Ginza Sony Park began even before its 2025 opening,
through a series of collaborative projects.
Each occasion deepened my sense of resonance with this place.
Here, activity and openness coexist,
creating a space where people connect with the city and with one another.
This ideal closely aligns with my own artistic aspirations.
For this exhibition, created in partnership with Ginza Sony Park,
I recognize a significant and meaningful challenge.
In this park in Ginza, where people from across the globe come together,
I have created a space adorned with flowers painted by my own hand.
Through this work, I aimed to convey the beauty of hanami
— one of Japan’s most cherished cultural traditions —
in a manner that is true to my own perspective.
If the scenery found only here touches the hearts of those who visit Ginza,
nothing would bring me greater joy.
SHUN SUDO
This exhibition highlights the current artistic position of SHUN SUDO, an artist who continues to carve his own path in contemporary art.
Influenced in part by his mother—who enjoyed drawing when he was young—he was exposed early on to oil painting. Although he experimented with oils in his youth, the true turning point in his artistic development occurred during his travels around the world. Encounters with the works of Western masters such as Van Gogh, Cézanne, and the Impressionists left a profound impact, inspiring the direction of this exhibition.
At the same time, SUDO’s work is also deeply rooted in street art and pop culture. Through his acrylic paintings—marked by bold, energetic contour lines—he established a distinctive and highly recognizable style of his own. However, driven by a desire to expand his expressive range, SUDO made a conscious decision to creatively break from his established imagery. Drawing on distant memories of oil painting techniques from his childhood, he embraced the challenge of working in oils once more. This exhibition, therefore, represents a new phase in his practice, where the rich experience accumulated through acrylic painting merges and blossoms within his renewed approach to oil painting.
As is widely known, SUDO’s “Button Flower” motif—filled with vibrant, positive energy—has already become a signature of his acrylic work. In this exhibition, the motif remains central yet is reinterpreted through his evolving oil painting technique. Although only a few years have passed since SUDO began working seriously in oils, he has quickly developed a unique style, guided by his strong artistic sensibility. Evidence of this can be seen in how the crisp, dynamic lines characteristic of his acrylic paintings have softened into more ambiguous, blended contours in his oils. This shift adds depth, richness, and new variety to his expression.
The level of abstraction in SUDO’s paintings varies, but each work demonstrates a high degree of completion and quality. His ongoing experimentation—where the experiences of acrylic and oil painting both collide and fuse—suggests that he is in the midst of a creative transition. At the same time, the works evoke the sense that he is genuinely enjoying this experimentation, almost as if he has returned to the joy and curiosity of his childhood. Taken together, these elements make clear that this exhibition marks a particularly significant moment in SHUN SUDO’s artistic journey as a contemporary artist.
Cultural Studies Scholar – Hiroki Yamamoto
DATES : March 7 – March 29, 2026
VENUE : Ginza Sony Park
What I depict are landscapes alive with flowers —
visions drawn from places I have encountered around the world,
and from the blossoms that happened to flourish in those fleeting moments.
Such moments, so easily overlooked, will never return.
By capturing the fragments etched in my memory,
I seek to transform them through painting into scenes that endure.
My relationship with Ginza Sony Park began even before its 2025 opening,
through a series of collaborative projects.
Each occasion deepened my sense of resonance with this place.
Here, activity and openness coexist,
creating a space where people connect with the city and with one another.
This ideal closely aligns with my own artistic aspirations.
For this exhibition, created in partnership with Ginza Sony Park,
I recognize a significant and meaningful challenge.
In this park in Ginza, where people from across the globe come together,
I have created a space adorned with flowers painted by my own hand.
Through this work, I aimed to convey the beauty of hanami
— one of Japan’s most cherished cultural traditions —
in a manner that is true to my own perspective.
If the scenery found only here touches the hearts of those who visit Ginza,
nothing would bring me greater joy.
SHUN SUDO