Haruna Sato is a painter who treats the canvas like human skin, and whose paintings make viewers want to reach out and touch them. Not confined to depictions of babies and human bodies, her works are “slightly but quite different” based on her own awareness and resolve about the limited but definite change in and diversity of subjects. Her art rests on unswerving, distinctive “material” and “value”， thanks to these traits, her works manage to convey a fleshy blurriness and moistness imbued with a vital force, however, the motifs may differ.

Sato begins making works by applying oil-based paint to hemp canvas as if tapping it on. This tapping technique leaves subtle indentations in the paint, to which several types of warm-color paint are successively applied in the same manner. She then shaves the painted surface with sandpaper, carefully bringing out various layers of hues hidden beneath. Through this process of tapping and sanding, which requires the use of the artist’s physical skills, the texture of the canvas gradually approaches that of human skin.

Sato has remained very active and made outstanding strides since her selection for the Tokyo Wonder Wall Award in 2009. Then, she won the Nanjing International Art Festival Grand Prix, the Artist Sponsorship Award from the KAMIYAMA Foundation, and other awards. Her activities are hardly confined to Japan, she also took part in international art fairs in Taipei, New York, India, Seoul, Tokyo, etc.; she continued to participate in the Nakanojo Biennale (in Gunma Prefecture, Japan) and stage an elaborate exhibit.