Sébastien Kito

Born of a French mother, and raised in France, Sébastien Kito has shown a desire to explore the culture of his other country, Japan, and has conceived an original way of thinking based on this confrontation of his dual origins. He is currently investigating form and color through mobile, articulated and hollowed-out sculptures, often bearing anthropomorphic or animal reminiscences. His sculptures are a playful invitation to join the space occupied by the work, or to transform it by moving one of the parts of the evolving structure.

Biography

“Sébastien Kito is an artist of withdrawal. He is also an artist of lines, as his refined sculpture tends to become a simple vertical or curved line. Curved, in fact, because the world he draws is of the cosmic order. The earth is round, space is curved, trees are ellipses.”
Claude Mollard

Sculptor Sébastien Kito lives and works in Paris. Born of a French mother, and raised in France, Sébastien Kito has shown a desire to explore the culture of his other country, Japan, and has conceived an original way of thinking based on this confrontation of his dual origins.

Sébastien Kito first followed in the footsteps of his father Akira Kito, who was one of the most important Japanese artists in post-1945 Paris, and of his grandfather and great-grandfather, by studying painting. In 1985, he was admitted to the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris.

Hoping to recapture the spirit of the Cobra group in which his father had participated in the 1950s, he frequented Pierre Alechinsky’s studio. At the same time, he worked for Nouveau-Réalisme artists, notably Raymond Hains, whose assistant he became in 1983. Despite a strong family heritage and prestigious teachers, Sébastien Kito quickly found his own path, enriched by all these fruitful encounters.

His first projects were mobile screens with hollowed-out centers, and paintings on cut-out and articulated supports. The latter is the basis of his thinking, and serves as the foundation for a second major step, the design of giant hinges known as Extragonds.

Sébastien Kito is currently investigating form and color through mobile, articulated and hollowed-out sculptures, often bearing anthropomorphic or animal reminiscences. His sculptures are a playful invitation to join the space occupied by the work, or to transform it by moving one of the parts of the evolving structure.

These particular relationships between work and space are akin to the Japanese concept of Ma, which designates the spatial or temporal interval between two things, as important as the two elements that limit it. With the greatest apparent simplicity, Sébastien Kito succeeds in suggesting complex relationships or interactions between sculptures and space, between full and empty.

Career

Expositions personnelles
2011
Mémoire de l'oubli, Archie Yves Klein, Paris, France
2009
Ado/Kito, Les Cascades, Paris, France
2008
Arcellor-Mittal, Pavillon d’Esche, France
2006
Suez Environnement, 1 rue d’Astorg, Paris, France
1996
« Arches », Galerie Satellite, Paris, France
1991
« Paraventité », Galerie Pixi, Paris, France
1988
« Paraventilateurs », MJC, Issy-les-Moulineaux, France

Acquisitions musées
2021
Petit Musée du Suréalisme Paul Gonze, Bruxelles, Belgique
2005
« Extragon », inox, 2 m 30  Ein Wald der Skulpturen, Landes Museum, Darmstadt, Allemagne  

Expositions collectives
2022
38ème semaine d’art contemporain, Mairie de Saint Mandé
2011
Esprits des lieux, Fondation Eugène Napoléon, Paris, France Dialogue CoBrA, Galerie Drylewicz, Paris, France
Depuis 2002, Galerie scandinave, Paris, France
Depuis 1996, Galerie Satellite, Paris, France
Depuis 1991, Galerie Pixi, Paris, France
2006
Exposition K(Art)ma, Lille, France
2005
Gare de Gael , Finistère ( « Hommage à Raymond Hains »). Réalisation de pince à linge géantes
2004
« Triptyque », Galerie JGM, Hôtel de Ville d’Angers, France
2003
Artventure A3, Place Saint-Sulpice, Paris, France Agence de la poste, Metz, France
2001
Symposium, Galerie JGM, Hôtel de Ville, Chantilly, France
1999
« Charnière à piano », inox, 4 m, ESSEC, CNIT, La Défense, France
1998
Mairie de Phalempin, Lille, France
1997
« Bow Figure Exposition » Do Well POWWOW, Tokyo, Japon
1996
Espace Culturel Agora Lys les Lannoy, Pas de Calais, France
1993
Musée du Montparnasse, Paris, France Musée de Campredon, « La règle et l’émotion », Isle sur la Sorgue, Vaucluse, France
1992
Musée de Campredon, « La règle et l’émotion », Isle sur la Sorgue, Vaucluse, France Musée de la Miniature, Montélimar, Ardèche, France
1991
« Livres et Objets d’artistes », Galerie Natkin Berta, Paris, France « Jean Dupuy le Marché », Galerie J & J Donguy, Paris, France
1988
Gallery Reflex, Amsterdam Hollande Mesa Verde Galerie, Luxembourg
1987
Galerie AA, Paris, France Ecole d’architecture UP7 Tolbiac, Paris, France Hôtel de Ville, Voiron, Isère, France Galerie Atelier, Paris, France  

Sculptures monumentales
2006
« Arbo », fer et aluminium, 3 m 14, Collection privée, Luxembourg
« Nuage 2», verre et inox, 2 m 53, Collection Privée, Luxembourg
2005
« Famille », fer et aluminium, 3 m x 4 m, Collection privée, Luxembourg
« Nuage 1», verre et inox, 2 m 70, Collection Privée, Ramatuelle, France
1999
« Ganesh », acier peint, 3m50 x 6m, Collection privée, Paris, France
1997
« Charnière à Piano Géante », acier brut, 3m10, Collection Privée, Paris, France