First Center Shows Sato's Japanese Photography, 6/18 - 9/12

Nashville's Frist Center for the Visual Arts' Gordon Contemporary Artists Project Gallery will feature 'Presence or Absence: The Photographs of Tokihiro Sato', an exhibition of 13 landscape photographs by one of Japan's best-known contemporary artists, June 18-September 12, 2010.

Originally trained as a sculptor, Sato first used photography when he had the idea of tracing light tracks next to one of his wire sculptures and capturing them with a camera. This experiment, in which he created light "trails" with a small pencil torch, led Sato to the discovery that he could express himself through sculpture using photography as his medium to fuse light and space.  

Sato uses traditional technology in untraditional ways. His photographs can take up to three hours to make as he moves across the landscape with mirrors and lights to create ultra-long exposures using a large-format, 8 x 10 camera set on a tripod.

As the images are being captured, the artist moves or walks into the scene within the camera's view and begins "drawing with light" to explore ways of altering the viewers' perceptions of time, space and movement. For nocturnal views, he uses a small flashlight.    

Through his photographs, Sato creates a poetic, lyrical world. Perfectly still and deep, each piece presents a scene of light that seems to breathe and only exist in a dream. 

In addition to his signature moving light works, the exhibition will also offer a number of Sato's still nature shots and camera obscura urban images.  

The Frist Center for the Visual Arts is located at 919 Broadway in downtown Nashville, Tenn. Gallery admission to the Frist Center is free for visitors 18 and younger and to Frist Center members. Frist Center admission is $10.00 for adults, $7.00 for seniors and military, and college students with ID. Thursday and Friday evenings (with the exception of 2010 Frist Fridays), 5:00-9:00 p.m., admission is free for college students with a valid college ID. Discounts are offered for groups of 10 or more with advance reservation by calling (615) 744-3246. The Frist Center is open seven days a week: Mondays through Wednesdays and Saturdays, 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Thursdays and Fridays, 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.; and Sundays, 1:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., with the café opening at noon. Additional information is available by calling (615) 244-3340 or by visiting their web site at www.fristcenter.org.

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