YUJI AMANO solo exhibition “ I Want You to Be Here ”

SAI presents the solo exhibition “I Want You to Be Here” by the artist Yuji Amano.

Born in 1978 in City of Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, Japan, Amano began taking photographs around 30 and made a strong debut in photography in 2009 when he won the Grand Prix at the Shiogama Photo Festival. For 17 years, he has been traveling around Japan, sleeping in a Kei car, announcing dates, times, and locations on social networking services, and showing his self-published photo book to visitors on a one-to-one basis. Around 2020, Amano opened his house, which used to be a love hotel in Omuta, as a library and gallery, where anyone can visit at any time. He has greatly expanded the scope of his activities beyond the boundaries of being a photographer. His photographs capture fragments of the world he is alive: Light drifting in the darkness, the sea of unknown journeys, clasped hands, indoor landscapes, spilled blood, blades, and medicines.

Taken with a mobile phone camera, his photographs avoid the traditional act of looking through a viewfinder. He even uses selfies and screenshots to record the raw immediacy of the moment. Yet, these photographs do not fit neatly into the genre of ‘private photography’. They are more abstract, and more poetic, and draw the viewer into Amano's worldview with a cinematic immersion.

Amano's statement that ‘Perhaps the real world lies in the endless darkness that spreads beyond the thinking minds of you and me’ seems to present, through a single photograph, the vast expanse of past and future—of life and death—that stretches beyond it. Having had severe depression for more than 30 years, the artist has always lived with death as a familiar presence. His photographs, as if carved out of the world through struggle, bear the marks of something deeply inscribed—images that are harsh, ephemeral, and imbued with a beauty that cannot be replicated. Divided into four sections at the gallery, this is the largest exhibition of his work, including his most recent work.

We look forward to welcoming you to the exhibition.