Yuya Saito

Saito was born in Japan and is currently based in New York. Deeply influenced by skateboard culture and street culture since childhood, he creates work that explores the relationship between urban city and human being.

Rather than using conventional materials such as canvas or panels, Saito builds his visual world around the ramp—a semicircular structure used in skateboarding—as his primary motif.  In his practice, he incorporates bentwood, a traditional woodworking technique often used in furniture making, combining this with street aesthetics. By merging elements that seemingly have no direct connection—craft-based tradition and urban subculture—he seeks to develop a new visual language for reinterpreting the contemporary city.