Sawako Nasu uses the language of painting to talk about distance, connection, and relationships. When reflecting on her own work, Nasu says, “How can I come in touch with paintings of the past?” Underlying Nasu’s work is a sense of the absolute, unbridgeable distance that lies between the classical and modernist paintings she admires, as well as that which lies between their times and herself today. It is this sense of distance that gives her art its thorough vision.

Nasu’s approach to the possibilities of painting, anchored in contrasting the era of classical painting with the era to which she belongs to as a contemporary artist, goes beyond the scope of her personal interests and reflects a current awareness of what is possible at the edge of art history, a site of constant renewal.