In the back alley of Japan Bridge in Tokyo, there is a mysterious bar that lights up quietly only at night. Its name is "GATAGATO". Standing at the counter of the store, people are greeted by Kaoru Sano, a unique business owner with another face as a painter. She paints a fantastic story on canvas, and at the same time continues to nurture the bar itself as a work. Born in Yamanashi Prefecture in 1975, Mr. Sano began his career as a painter by majoring in oil painting at Tama Art University Graduate School. While steadily building a career as a painter, in 2010 he opened his own bar "GATAGATO" in Japan Bridge, Tokyo. The interior of the store is decorated with paintings by Sano herself, making it a one-of-a-kind space where you can immerse yourself in the world she created with a glass of sake. Painters and viewers can meet and talk directly. Such a "living gallery" is what GATAGOTO is. Mr. Sano's representative work is the "GATAGATO" series, which features two black cats, "GATA" and "GATO". In this series, the bar "GATAGATO" itself travels through time and space, from the deep sea to space, as if it had a will. This narrative style invites the viewer to a nostalgic and somewhat sad fantasy world, making it seem as if each painting is a "postcard cut out of the memory of the trip". The lonely time as a painter in the atelier to the canvas, and the time as a bar manager standing at the counter and mingling with people. It is said that going back and forth between these two poles is the source of Mr. Sano's creation. Encounters and conversations at the bar become new inspirations, which in turn enrich the narrative on the canvas. The space "GATAGATO" is not only a place for her to present her work, but also a soil for her to create her next work. The story of a "traveling bar" run by a painter. The small light that lights up in the back alleys of the Japan Bridge will continue to deliver warm stories to the hearts of visitors in the future. ▼Exhibition Schedule 2025.12.13 (Sat) ~ 21 (Sun) Monday ~ Friday: 15:00 open / After 18:00, a charge of 1,000 yen will be incurred for normal bar business Saturdays and Sundays: 11:00~19:00 (Bar is not open.) Free admission) Venue: GATA GATO Address: 1-2-9 Horidomecho, Japanbashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo *In addition to the exhibition of new works, there will also be sales of posters, postcards, calendars, and stollen sales of the bakery "Mai Nichi no Bread Days" in Sendai.