Wrestling Club, 2017
I paint joy. My figures grin because they’re alive — born from my imagination to remind us that happiness can be bold, strange, and beautifully human.
Koichi Sato
Koichi Sato (b. 1974, Tokyo) is a self-taught artist based in New York City. Known for his exuberant, cartoon-like figurative paintings, Sato reinvents images drawn from vintage American magazines, sports, and popular culture into vibrant tableaux of exaggerated forms, bold color, and rhythmic pattern. His joyous, stylized portraits radiate warmth and humor, celebrating the overlooked and everyday with a fresh, playful perspective. Sato lives and works in Manhattan’s Chinatown.