Dr Masato Takasaka is a visual artist, writer, curator and sometimes musician. He holds a PhD in Visual Arts from Monash University and is currently Associate Lecturer in Visual Art at the Victorian College of the Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music. Previously having performed as a lead guitarist in uber-hip rock bands as well as practicing as a visual artist, Masato thinks about his studio practice in musical terms, describing his aesthetic as an iPod Shuffle: playing the greatest hits of 20th century avant-garde art, with references to constructivism, dada, pop and minimalism alongside the back catalogue of his own greatest hits.

Primarily working with found objects and materials to construct his gallery based installations, art and design history collide in Takasaka's mini-cities. Described as techno-contemporary, the exuberant chaos of his sculptural practice involves a process of working and re-working everyday materials in inventive ways to make something new. Bent, crumpled and endlessly interacting surfaces of Takasaka's work explore limitless formal possibilities and combinations.

Recent exhibitions include I ♥ Lizzy, Neon Parc, Melbourne (2025); Dissecting Table, TCB inc. Art, Melbourne and B32 Artspace, Maastricht, Netherlands (2025); Spring 1883, Animal House Fine Arts, Melbourne (2025); Guess Taxonomy, Propane, Melbourne (2025); Eye to Eye: The Susan Taylor and Peter Jones Collection, ANU Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra (2025); 1964, 1969, 1977, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2025, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne (2025); Bernhard Sachs: After History, Linden New Art, Melbourne (2025); ‘every painting has a friend’, Mary Cherry Contemporary, Melbourne (2024); This Hideous Replica, RMIT Gallery (2024); SACHS SPACE (with Baillie Jackson) (2024); Duran Duran, MEJIA (2024); Fiona Sidney Myer Gallery (2024); Garage Days Revisited Redux, Haydens, Melbourne (2023); Aotearoa Art Fair 2022, Haydens, Auckland, Aotearoa/ New Zealand (2022); Conners Conners, Melbourne (2022); Disneyland Paris, Melbourne (2021); Towards Regrowth, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne (2020); Art Schools for Fire Relief, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne (2020); Drawing Folio 3, Block Projects, Melbourne (2019); Kensington Contemporary, New Agency, Melbourne (2019); The Road Paintings, RNOP Biennale of International Reductive and Non Objective Art, Sydney (2019); PHOTOSTATS Redux, George Paton Gallery Project Spaces, Melbourne (2019); The Mechanic Part 2, Neon Parc, 215 Albion st, Brunswick (2018); SAM Education Lab, Shepparton Art Museum, Shepparton (2018); On Location with Louise Paramor and Masato Takasaka, True Estate, Melbourne (2018); timeFRAME- Works from the Taylor/ Jones Collection, Justin Art House Museum, Melbourne (2017); 95 NOW, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne (2018); Red Green Blue: A history of Australian Video Art, Griffith University Art Museum, Brisbane (2017); Garage Days Revisited, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne (2016); Playroom, Lismore Regional Gallery, Lismore (2016); TarraWarra Biennial 2016: Endless Circulation, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Healesville (2016); Channel G as part of Transmission: Legacies of the Television Age, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2015); 3-Ply Remote Residency, The Stool, Good Press Gallery, Glasgow (2014); Melbourne Now, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2013); Roppongi Crossing 2013: OUT OF DOUBT, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2013); Reinventing the Wheel: the Readymade Century, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne (2013) and Cubism and Australian Art, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne (2009).

As part of the artists' group Inverted Topology he was included in + Plus Factors, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne (2006); at SNO, Sydney (2007) and Minus Space at PS1 Contemporary Art Centre, New York (2009).

Dr

Masato Takasaka

Associate Lecturer, Visual Art

Victorian College of the Arts

Dr

Masato Takasaka

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Dr

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