Mike Saijo Art

Digital print on paper. Photograph is 8 x 8 in. and framed it is 13 x 13 in. Edition of 10.

Digital print on paper. Photograph is 8 x 8 in. and framed it is 13 x 13 in. Edition of 10.

Brass, twine, stainless steel long screws in acrylic display box on mdf wood pedestal. Sculpture is 6" x 6" x 6" Total dimensions including pedestal: 61" x 13" x 13"

Digital print on paper. Photograph is 8 x 8 in. and frame is 13 x 13 in. Edition of 10.

Digital print on paper. Photograph is 8 x 8 in. and frame is 13 x 13 in.

Gouache on paper. Artwork is 7.5 x 7.5 in. and framed it is 13 x 13 in.

Gouache on paper. Artwork is 7.5 x 7.5 in. and framed it is 13 x 13 in.

Toner on pages of Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire on wood panel

Gouache on paper. Artwork is 7.5 x 7.5 in. and framed it is 13 x 13 in.

Gouache on paper. Artwork is 7.5 x 7.5 in. and framed it is 13 x 13 in.

Toner on pages of Jean Baudrillard’s book Illusion of the End on wood panel.

Drawing on paper, framed.

Toner on pages of Words and wisdom of Will Rogers on wood

Toner on pages on George Sanchez’s book Boyle Heights on wood panel

Toner on pages of Hidden Order of Art, on wood panel

Toner on book pages.

Toner on book pages.

Toner on book pages.

Toner on book pages.

Influenced by the tradition of ancient manuscripts, Saijo copies information using a xerox copy machine onto old discolored pages of books creating a sens...

A new work by the artist

A new work by the artist

Toner on Book Pages

A new work by the artist

Toner on Book Pages

Mike Saijo was born in 1974 and grew up in the suburbs outside of Los Angeles. He started out looking at many books and magazines and later influenced by graffiti art and Oshuji-Japanese calligraphy. After high school he made his first ‘book piece’ using pages of the New Testament bible, and printing an image of Senator Daniel Innoye he found from a history book. Saijo refers to the notion of “memory construction” as an entry point to understanding his complex body of work. Memory consists of a combination of feeling, words and image which shape our perception of reality. As a youth Saijo spent much of his time sailing with his father off the coast of Southern California. Such memories have manifested in his recent work which explores themes of loss, entropy, transformation, and the unconscious: represented by an ocean scape where the boundaries are blurred between the sky and the sea. Mythology and classic tales, like Homer’s Odyssey and Stories of the Seven Seas, are reduced to abstraction, thus leaving the viewer to weave their own meaning into the work, navigating through a personal dreamscape, and continuing on a journey between the familiar and the unknown. Influenced by the tradition of ancient manuscripts, he copies information using a xerox copy machine onto old discolored pages of books creating a sense of the old, while venturing into the new. It is an attempt to take ownership of the past, and effect how we see our present historical situation as we enter into moment of accelerated change and may experience memory loss. Saijo rejects the notion of art as a fixed idea defined by history, and instead he reclaims history, and redefines it based on “human experience”. Using an “open text” approach, Saijo transforms an object, such as a book, from sequential to spatial order to create new meaning. His unconventional process often involves Xerox copy technology, office supplies, and building materials to construct art with a wide range of subject matter from mid-century modern architecture, WWII photos...