Biography

Painter/graphic designer. Born in Fukuoka Prefecture. Graduated from Fukuoka Prefectural Kokura Technical High School. Moved to Tokyo, where he taught himself design and art. In 1976, joined Nippon Design Center, Inc., with the recommendation of the designer Kazumasa Nagai. After becoming independent in 1982, he took the design world by storm with his designs that revealed a strong sense of authorship. He gained an international reputation through receiving such recognitions as the Gold Award in the New York ADC International Exhibition. From around 2005, he shifted the main axis of his career to painting. He gained attention for his first solo exhibition held at 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. Saito’s painting is characterized by his method of applying paint on a canvas based on his “plan drawing,” which is created through digitally dismantling and reconstructing images of such subjects as movie stills and portrait photos of artists.