When facing a painting by Shizue Sakamoto (1969, Andradina, Brazil), one can easily believe that it has found a chromatic portal whose luminous center invites us to inhabit it. Doubtless, the light is on the core of her creations in a way that seems to irradiate from the center of her compositions. The scale of the work – which can range from small to large – resizes the spatial relationships established by the observers, inviting them to linger on that surface, experiencing another temporality. In the presence of the work, we can engage in an almost meditative state, which avoids the intermediation and contamination of the work by the desire for rationalization, avoiding its imprisonment in any kind of discourse.

The atmosphere of silence evoked in her paintings is a result of the leading role of physical experience in the reception of the work. Silence, in that case, is not of the order of absence. In the chromatic harmony of Sakamoto’s paintings, there is something like a musical chord, since three tones intertwine to create a single note that continually reverberates within us. In this sense, we can perceive a discreet musicality in her works, investing in the synesthetic potential of her chromatic arrangements to establish a sensorial experience that exceeds the gaze. Sakamoto’s innovative approach to abstract painting, finally, converges the color field research with the erasure of the expressive hand present in minimalism.

Shizue Sakamoto has been exhibiting her work since 2010. Among the artist’s main solo exhibitions are: O jardim, at Luis Maluf Gallery, in São Paulo, Brazil (2022); Partitura em cores, at Kogan Amaro Gallery, in São Paulo, Brazil (2020); Silêncio e luz, at Tato Gallery, in São Paulo, Brazil; and Dueto transcendental, at Deco Gallery, in São Paulo, Brazil (2011). Her works were included in several group shows, such as: Setas e turmalinas, at Casa de Cultura do Parque, in São Paulo, Brazil (2022); Color Bind, at Kogan Amaro Gallery, in São Paulo, Brazil (2021); and Coletiva, at Auroras, in São Paulo, Brazil (2018); among others. She was selected for the 3rd Contemporary Art Salon, in Ponta Grossa, Brazil; and the 46th Contemporary Art Salon, in Piracicaba, Brazil (2014). Sakamoto has works in the collections of the Marcos Amaro Foundation, Itu, Brazil and the Pinacoteca Municipal Miguel Dutra, Piracicaba, Brazil.