Kennsuke Sasaki

Kennsuke Sasaki (1957-2015) was born in Kihara, Chizu-cho, Tottori Prefecture, Japan, and remained there until he completed high school. He earned an M.A. in sculpture from Tokyo University of the Arts, where he studied from 1980 to 1986 and received the KUME Prize Scholarship in 1983. In 1987 and 1988 he lived in London, England.

His career unfolded in three distinct periods. From 1980 to 1989, at Tokyo University of the Arts and then in England, he focused on family portraits and animal sculptures in marble, producing small stone heads and animal figures that were shown in the Animals in Marble exhibitions at Dryden St. Gallery in London in 1988 and Gallery Tamaya in Tokyo in 1989. From 1989 to 1995 he completed the monumental Stairway to Heaven (1990) at Chizu-Norin High School and began exploring polyhedral abstract sculpture alongside large stone heads and skulls; his dodecahedron complex was exhibited at Guild Gallery in Osaka and Stone Gallery in Tokyo in 1993. From 1995 until his death in 2015 he perfected a method for precisely cutting dodecahedrons from stone, for which he was granted a United States patent, while exhibiting annually at the Stone Museum in Japan from 1994 to 2010 and at Art 99 in London.

Sasaki was celebrated for a refined minimalist aesthetic and for his patented dodecahedron sculptures. Working with rare European marbles, he explored the relationship between geometry, form and human experience. His exquisitely polished sculpted heads invite touch, their surfaces so smooth that they evoke the softness of human skin, and his portrayals of human heads and forms draw on classical traditions, echoing the sculptural techniques of ancient Roman, Greek and Egyptian cultures. Known for both figurative and abstract work, he specialized in portrait sculpture and large-scale stone monuments that combine timeless materials with innovative design, and he is widely regarded as one of Japan's most important and accomplished contemporary sculptors.

Most of Sasaki's works are exhibited at Kihara Studio in Chizu-cho, Tottori Prefecture, and his monumental sculptures can be seen at Chizu-Norin High School.