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Mike Saijo was born in 1974 and grew up in the suburbs outside of Los Angeles. He started out looking at many books and magazines and later influenced by graffiti art and Oshuji-Japanese calligraphy. After high school he made his first ‘book piece’ using pages of the New Testament bible, and printing an image of Senator Daniel Innoye he found from a history book.
Saijo refers to the notion of “memory construction” as an entry point to understanding his complex body of work. Memory consists of a combination of feeling, words and image which shape our perception of reality. As a youth Saijo spent much of his time sailing with his father off the coast of Southern California. Such memories have manifested in his recent work which explores themes of loss, entropy, transformation, and the unconscious: represented by an ocean scape where the boundaries are blurred between the sky and the sea. Mythology and classic tales, like Homer’s Odyssey and Stories of the Seven Seas, are reduced to abstraction, thus leaving the viewer to weave their own meaning into the work, navigating through a personal dreamscape, and continuing on a journey between the familiar and the unknown.
Influenced by the tradition of ancient manuscripts, he copies information using a xerox copy machine onto old discolored pages of books creating a sense of the old, while venturing into the new. It is an attempt to take ownership of the past, and effect how we see our present historical situation as we enter into moment of accelerated change and may experience memory loss.
Saijo rejects the notion of art as a fixed idea defined by history, and instead he reclaims history, and redefines it based on “human experience”. Using an “open text” approach, Saijo transforms an object, such as a book, from sequential to spatial order to create new meaning. His unconventional process often involves Xerox copy technology, office supplies, and building materials to construct art with a wide range of subject matter from mid-century modern architecture, WWII photos, cinema stills, imaginary landscapes, and the history of fashion.
Mike Saijo explores the notions of “representation and history” by forming constructions and site-specific installations—with the text of actual book pages juxtaposing imagery of historical incidents and events which have had significant local impact. Together, image and text undergo a process of reduction and abstraction, combining to articulate the point that “now” is as much “history” as history is now.
Artist CV
EDUCATION
1994-1998 Pasadena Art Center College of Design Fine Art / Film
1992-1994 Pasadena City College Pasadena, California Graphics Design / Fine Art
AWARDS & HONORS
2019 Public Choice Award – CA 101 Redondo Beach, California
2018 1st Place and Public Choice Award – CA 101 Redondo Beach, California
2016 2nd Place and Public Choice Award – CA 101 Redondo Beach, California
2015 AARP Future of Transportation Award, LHS LAUSD, Los Angeles California
2014 Occupy Award, Cal State University Long Beach, Getty Museum, California
2012 Institute for Arts and Olfaction – Research Fellow, Los Angeles, California
2007 Columbia University Medical Center Community Relations, NYC New York
2006 28th Annual Wallworks Juried Competition LA Artcore, LA Brewrey Annex
2006 2nd Annual International Artists Festival in Thailand, Bangkok
2005 Public Art RFQ LAPD Headquarters, LA County Cultural Affair Department
Solo Exhibitions
2021 Q|O Quantum Ocean & Mutant Mountain, BG Gallery
2020 Under the Bridge with Flora Kao, Maiden LA, Marina Del Rey
2020 Q|O Pier 2 Art Center Artist Residency Exhibition, Kaohsuing, Taiwan
2018 Spiritual Legacy Project, Akiba Art Lab, Tokyo, Japan
2018 Spiritual Legacy LA Art Core Union Center for the Arts
2018 Portrait Factory LA Art Show
2017 Spiritual Legacy Installation, Union Church of Los Angeles, Los Angeles
2017 Terminal Island Installation, USC IGM, Art Gallery, Los Angeles
2016 Inaka, Sparc Gallery, South Pasadena
2016 Inaka, USC IGM Art Gallery, Los Angeles
2016 Sophia Gaia, installation LA Artcore Brewery Annex
2015 Recent Works LA Artcore Brewery Annex
2014 Living Legacy of Ethel Percy Andrus, USC IGM Art Gallery, Los Angeles
2014 We Are Spiritual Machines, Porch Gallery, Ojai California
2014 Soft Machine: DNA 2 USC IGM Art Gallery, Los Angeles
2013 Portraits at Homeboy Industries, Los Angeles
2011 Soft Machine: DNA USC IGM Art Gallery Los Angeles
2010 Dream Deferred Bleicher Galleries Los Angeles
2009 One Piece Bleicher / Golightly Gallery Santa Monica
2008 3000 Worlds in a Moment. LA Artcore, Brewery Annex, Los Angeles
2008 Down By Law, Julie Rico Gallery, Los Angeles
2007 Corpus Xeroxysm 4 LA Artcore Brewery Annex, Los Angeles
2006 Corpus Xeroxysm 3 Tompkins Square Library East Village, NYC
2005 Corpus Xeroxysm 2 INRI Studios LA
2004 Corpus Xeroxysm 1 611 Studio LA
Group Exhibitions
2021 Greyscale Wonderland, BG Gallery, Santa Monica, Los Angeles, CA
2021 California Lite, Curated by Julie Rico, Arcade Project, NYC.
2020 Artists with Beirut Emergency Fund Online Auction
2020 Photo Flux: Unshuttered LA, curated by Jill Moniz, The J Paul Getty Museum
2020 Art Under the Influence, Ave 50 Studio, Los Angeles, CA
2020 Greyscale Wonderland, BG Gallery, Santa Monica, Los Angeles, CA
2019 Portrait Factory, BG Gallery Scope Miami, Miami Florida
2019 PORTAL, BG Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2019 FLOWERS, USC IGM Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2019 CA 101 Redondo Beach California
2019 Japanese Artist Group Show, Loft at Liz Los Angeles, CA
2019 LA ARTShow, Portrait Factory BG Gallery Los Angeles Convention Center
2018 KaoshuingPhoto – Spiritual Legacy Project, Kaoshuing, Taiwan
2018 Jene Nete Art Installation CA 101, Redondo Beach CA
2018 Pacific Asia Museum Fundraiser Gala – Pasadena CA
2018 CA 101 Redondo Beach, California
2018 LA ARTShow, Portrait FactorySpectrum Gestalt BG Gallery, Los Angeles CA
2017 Anti-Defamation League – Artworks Fundraiser Exhibition (ADL)
2017 Attention to All Persons: Japanese American National Museum (JANM) LA, CA
2017 Ship Building, LA Yacht Club, San Pedro, CA
2017 Terminal Island Installation, CA 101, Redondo Beach
2016 ELEMENTS, Sophia Gaia installation Loft at Liz’s Los Angeles, CA
2015 ADL Artworks Exhibition, Malibu, CA
2015 AES Redondo Beach Power Plant, Redondo Beach, CA
2015 Boyle Heights, LA PLAZA de la Cultura y Artes, Los Angeles, CA
2015 Greyscale Wonderland, Bleicher Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2015 CUSTOM, Bleicher Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2014 IDENTITY Snap! Orlando, Orlando, Florida
2014 Living Legacy of Ethel Percy Andrus, Ojai Valley Museum, Ojai, CA
2014 CUSTOM Bleicher Gorman Gallery, Bergamont Station, LA, CA
2014 INTERSECTIONS at the Breed Street Shul. Boyle Heights, California
2014 Diverted Destruction, Loft at Liz’s Los Angeles, CA
2014 MOPLA Photography Exhibition at Loft at Liz’s. Los Angeles, CA
2013 Ojai Art Festival, Porch Gallery, Ojai, California
2013 ADL ArtWorks Exhibition Curated by Caspar Martin, Pritzker Residence
2013 GLOWfest, Bleicher Gallery, Santa Monica
2013 Nostalgia Bold, Bleicher Gallery, Santa Monica
2013 Ramajangala University of Technology Rattanakosin
2013 9th Annual International Arts Festival Pho Chan Campus Thanvaburi, Bangkok
2012 Yoda’s Brain by Chromatists TCL London / Los Angeles Exchange Exhibit LA
2012 Last Exhibition, Bleicher Gallery, Los Angeles
2012 Flight Gallery, San Antonio, Texas
2012 Opening Exhibition Bleicher Gallery
2010 Photography Show The Loft at Liz Los Angeles
2010 Diverted Destruction The Loft at Liz Los Angeles
2009 A Long Long Summer S1F Gallery Los Angeles
2009 FRESH Silent Auction MOCA, Geffen Contemporary Los Angeles
2008 Human Botany, Julie Rico Gallery, Downtown Los Angeles
2008 Art LA, De Soto Gallery, Los Angeles
2008 Photo LA, De Soto Gallery Los Angeles
2007 Cheap and Plentiful curated by Mark Cousin 207gallery Inwood, NewYork
2007 Micro Gestalt 207gallery curated by Airom Bleicher Inwood, New York
Mike Saijo: Portrait Factory
8x8in portraits by commission for $100 and large sized options available also. If you would like to make a time to get one made, feel free to contact us using the button below.
For events: $40 6x6in portraits are available at a minimum of 40 portraits to book the event