Sono Osato (born 1960 in Baden-Baden) is an American artist based in New York City. Osato's work includes sculptures and paintings. Both often include found objects, such as machine parts and animal bones. Her work attempts to blend the boundaries between artistic disciplines. Her most recent works, the Silent Language and Buried Language series, deal primarily with the intersection of language and topography.
Osato's painting Meena is part of the permanent collection at the de Young Museum in San Francisco.
An Excerpt of Osato's painting Silent Language, No. 6 is reprinted in Armchair/Shotgun Issue No. 2 with an accompanying interview
Osato is the niece of ballerina Sono Osato.
Solo and Group Exhibitions
2014 The Right Amount of Wrong, Curated by Lovina Purple, ISE Foundation, New York, NY
2014 Traces, Presented by Armchair/Shotgun, 7 Dunham, Brooklyn, NY
2013 A Cage Went in Search of a Bird, Radiator Arts, New York, NY
2011 Piece of Mind, Elga Wimmer, New York, NY
2010 Summer Collage Show, ACA Galleries, New York, NY
2008 33 Washington: A Retrospective, Rabbithole Studios, Brooklyn, NY
2008 Art Auction for Louisiana ArtWorks, Louisiana Artworks, New Orleans
2008 Beauty's Burden, The Ernest Rubinstein Gallery at the Educational Alliance, New York, NY
2008 Babylon: The Buried Language Series, Brian Gross Fine Art, San Francisco, California
2007 Silent Language, Gallery Twenty-Four, Brooklyn, New York
2007 CCA(C) at di Rosa Preserve: Celebration of CCA's Centennial with Prominent Alumni in the Collection, Napa, CA
2007 Honoring CCA at 100: Works by Arneson, De Forest, Fleming, Osato and Solomon, Brian Gross Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
2007 Tuttavia Povera, Shore Institute of the Contemporary Arts, Long Branch, NJ
2006 International Assemblage Artists Exhibition, GALLERY twenty-four, Berlin
2006 Egg Drop Soup, Salon on South Second, Brooklyn, NY
2006 Impromptu, DAC (Dumbo Art Center), Brooklyn, NY
2006 Remnants, Lemmons Contemporary, New York, NY
2006 Three Person Show (with Tatiana Parcero & Oscar Munoz), Gaviria-Lorduy Fine Arts, Brooklyn, NY
2006 Winter Auction, DAC, Brooklyn, NY
2006 Destinations, Outdoor Projection of Revenant, Art in Odd Places, Lower East Side, New York, New York, curated by Jeremy Helton
2005 Winter Auction, DAC, Brooklyn, NY
2005 Angels in Dust, Brian Gross Fine Art, San Francisco, CA (solo)
2004 Revenant, Simultaneous Projections, Dumbo Arts Center, "Art under the Bridges Festival," Brooklyn, NY (solo)
2004 Winter Auction, DAC, Brooklyn, NY
2003 Echo: Recent Paintings and Sculpture, Brian Gross Fine Art, San Francisco, CA (solo)
2002 Paintings/Assemblages, Brian Gross Fine Art at One Post Street, San Francisco, CA (solo)
2000 Robert Lowery Gallery, Athens, GA (solo)
2000 Metamorphosis, Fifth Season Gallery, Tracy, CA
2000 Time Capsule, Refusalon, San Francisco, CA
1999 Recent Works by Alumni, California College of Art and Crafts, Oakland, CA
1999 Faculty Show, Anderson Ranch, Snowmass, CO
1999 Raymond Lawrence Gallery, Atlanta, GA
1999 New Paintings, Brian Gross Fine Art, San Francisco, CA(solo)
1999 permanent floor installation, Natalie & James Thompson Gallery, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA (solo)
1999 Meaning and Message: Contemporary Art from the Museum Collection, The Oakland Museum, CA
1999 Requiem: Living Artists Eulogize a Dying Century, Nexus Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, GA
1999 The Living Legend of Fluxus, Spokane Falls Community Center, Spokane, WA
1998 S(o)UND, Natalie & James Thompson Gallery, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA (solo)
1998 Secrets of Nature, Paradise Wood Sculpturegrove, Santa Rosa, CA
1997 The Art Orchestra (A Sculptor's Ensemble) performed at Florence Gould Theater. Written and directed by Tom Marioni.
1996 Trace, The Dead Space Gallery, Portland, ME
1996 Samplings, Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1996 Sculpture Walk, Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco, CA
1996 CCAC: Past, Present, and Future, Oliver Art Center, Oakland, CA
1996 Re-In-CAR-Nation, Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA
1995 Pulling the Weight, Works, San Jose, CA
1995 Roots in Asia (two person show with Joe Sugayam) Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA
1995 Public Art/Public Space/Public Process, South of Market Cultural Center, San Francisco, CA
1995 Facing Eden: 100 Years of Landscape Art in the Bay Area, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, CA
1994 Wunderkammer, Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1994 S(P)OO(o)R, Terrain, San Francisco, CA (solo)
1993 Oakland Drawers, Oakland Museum Sculpture Court, CA (solo)
1993 Trash, Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1993 Filler, Terrain, San Francisco, CA
1992 The Ecology Show, The Gap Corporate Headquarters,San Francisco, CA
1992 New Sculpture, Terrain, San Francisco, CA (solo)
1991 Turn of the Century Fine Art, Berkeley, CA (solo)
1991 Monoprints, Terrain, San Francisco, CA (solo)
1991 11 at 1111: New California Sculpture, Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA
1991 Woman Image Now Honor Exhibition Series, Hayden Library, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
1990 Wall Sculpture: The Art Found Objects, Center for the Arts, Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco, CA
1990 Chain Reaction, San Francisco Arts Commission, San Francisco, CA
1990 Oakland Artists, Oakland Museum, CA
1989 Fresh Views, San Joe Museum of Art, San Jose, CA
1989 Innojo Eard Onacna, Fuller Gross Gallery, San Francisco, CA (solo)
1989 Eye Sores, curated by Nayland Blake, New Langton Arts, San Francisco, CA
1988 From Ashes to Veiled Beatitudes, Terrain, San Francisco, CA
1987 Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1987 Elementary My Dear, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1986 Master's Exhibition, CCAC, Oakland, CA
1986 New Art Gallery, San Francisco, CA (solo)
1985 New Art in the West, Vorpal Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1985 Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA
1983 Another Exhibition of Paintings, The Lyceum, ASU, Tempe, AZ, curator and participant
1982 An Exhibition of Paintings, The Lyceum, ASU, Tempe, AZ, curator and participant
1982 Harry Wood Art Gallery, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ (solo)
