Naoki Sutter-Shudo
Naoki Sutter Shudo
b. 1990, Paris, France
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA
Naoki Sutter-Shudo combines meticulous craft, material refinement, and vernacular objects to create elegant, enigmatic works. Exploring dichotomies of East and West, nature and artifice, systems and irrationality, Sutter-Shudo’s work comprises carefully constructed objects with shrewd conceptual flourishes. Often built from wood, rigorously lacquered with multiple coats of enamel and embellished with superfluous hardware, Sutter-Shudo’s works deliver their playful nihilism through their material fetish. The multilingual artist, whose life has been equally steeped in the cultures of Japan, France, and the United States, applies formal rigor to linguistic slippages, certain of his sculptures forming slouched, embellished, or scattered lettering. From his Eastern-inflected geometric formalism emerge signifiers of American anxiety or European languor: stress balls appear in various guises (handheld spheres in the forms of planets, moons, brains and hearts), used cigarette filters are fanned into rosettes. Often, Sutter-Shudo works at a small, dioramic scale, lending an uncanny dimension that is compounded by the presence of natural elements in facsimile or miniature: fake coral; plastic daisies; tiny, enameled flowers placed with unnatural order. Across Sutter-Shudo’s work, cultural sensibilities are placed in tension—the material care of the East, the rampant commercialism of the West, and the bohemian leisure of the Old World.
EDUCATION
| 2013 | Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA |
| 2012 | DNAP, Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, France |
SELECTED SOLO AND TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS
| 2024 | Naoki Sutter-Shudo, Keijiban, Kanazawa, Japan Physical, Derosia, New York, NY End of Thinking Capacity, Gaga & Reena Spaulings, Los Angeles, CA |
| 2022 | 観光, XYZ Collective, Tokyo, Japan Tourismus, Alienze, Vienna, Austria (with Mona Varichon) Bibliothèque, Crèvecoeur at CFA, Milan, Italy (with Julien Carreyn) Vanity of Vanities, The Vanity, Los Angeles, CA |
| 2021 | Sculpture, Crèvecoeur, Paris, France Don pur de la nature, Bodega (Derosia), New York, NY |
| 2019 | DUO, XYZ Collective, Tokyo, Japan (with Soshiro Matsubara) Jour de fête en couleurs, Crèvecoeur, Marseille, France (with Louise Sartor) |
| 2018 | Mœurs, Crèvecoeur, Paris, France |
| 2017 | Parade, Bodega (Derosia), New York, NY |
| 2016 | All at Once, Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco, CA (with Alexandra Noel) 27 av. Stephen Pichon 75013 Paris 2007-2015, Los Angeles Contemporary Archive, Los Angeles, CA |
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
| 2024 | Roundabout Walkabout, Gene's Dispensary, Los Angeles, CA |
| 2023 | L'Atelier du Sud, Fondation Vincent Van Gogh Arles, Arles, France |
| 2022 | The Practice of Everyday Life, Derosia, New York, NY Des corps, des écritures, Musée de Art Moderne de Paris, Paris, France La Fiebre de las Formas, Colette Mariana, Barcelona, Spain Group Show, Alienze, Vienna, Austria Lèche-vitrine, Cocotte, Treignac, France |
| 2021 | Les Urbaines, Espace Arlaud, Lausanne, Switzerland Reassembly, curated by Spencer Young, Galerie Nordenhake, Stockholm, Sweden |
| 2020 | Bar, Commercial Street, Los Angeles, CA Stay Safe, Shilvers Only, Paris, France The Sentimental Organization of the World, Crèvecoeur, Paris, France From the Xmas tree of Lucy Bull, From the Desk of Lucy Bull, Los Angeles, CA |
| 2019 | FOCUS GROUP, von ammon co., Washington D.C. Foncteur d’oubli, organized by Benoît Maire, Le Plateau, FRAC Ile-de-France, Paris, France Hannah Hur, Michael Kennedy Costa, Naoki Sutter-Shudo, Franz Kaka, Toronto, Canada Les Soirées de Paris, organized by Bodega (Derosia) at Crèvecoeur, Paris, France |
| 2018 | Body, L’Inconnue, Montreal, Canada 10 Years / 100 Sculptures, Anonymous Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico Kiss in Tears, organized by XYZ Collective, Freedman Fitzpatrick, Los Angeles, CA The Lucinda River, Carl Louie, London, Ontario, Canada Condo NY, hosting Crèvecoeur (Paris), Bodega (Derosia), New York, NY Sydney Sydney, Sydney, Australia Over Under Through, Rita Urso, Milan, Italy A Curious Herbal, Garden, Los Angeles, CA |
| 2017 | Shivers Only, La Paix, Paris, France Kill it on vacation, The Steak House Doskoi via XYZ Collective, Tokyo, Japan |
| 2016 | Instruments of the Homecoming, The Sunroom, Richmond, VA Everyday War, Ashes/Ashes, Los Angeles, CA Nothing recedes like failure, Mortadelle, Arles, France |
RESIDENCIES
| 2022 | Studio of the South, led by Laura Owens, LUMA, Arles, France |
SELECTED PRESS
Naoki Sutter-Shudo Sculpts What Can't Be Said, Harry Tafoya, Paper, March 29, 2024
Naoki Sutter-Shudo’s “End of Thinking Capacity,” Gracie Hadland, e-flux, January 31, 2024
Naoki Sutter-Shudo, monuments and icons, Samantha Ozer, Contemporary Fine Arts, November 23, 2021
Headiness, Naoki Sutter-Shudo, Sabrina Tarasoff, Mousse Magazine Issue 73, Fall 2020, Print
30 Under 35: Naoki Sutter-Shudo Uncovers Beauty in Tragedy, Dean Kissick, Cultured Magazine, November 2019, Print
Naoki Sutter-Shudo, Brian Paul, Living Content, August 2019
Naoki Sutter-Shudo, Riccardo Venturi, Artforum, October 2018, Print
The Downward Spiral: Condo New York, Dean Kissick, Spike Art Magazine, July 11, 2018
Naoki Sutter-Shudo at Galerie Crèvecoeur Paris, Artnews, July 11, 2018
Five Shows to See at Condo New York, Perwana Nazif, Elephant Magazine, June 26, 2018
Faut-il avoir peur des boîtes?, Julie Ackermann, Les Inrockuptibles, June 25, 2018
Naoki Sutter-Shudo, Contemporary Art Writing Daily, May 14, 2017
Naoki Sutter-Shudo, Julia Wolkoff, Art in America, May 11, 2017
‘Everyday War’ Curated by Keith J. Varadi at Ashes/Ashes Los Angeles, Fluxo, January 20, 2017
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, France
MAMCO Genève, Switzerland