Rui Sasaki was born in Kochi Prefecture in 1984. She graduated in 2006 from the Glass Program in the Department of Crafts and Industrial Design at Musashino Art University, and in 2010 completed an MFA in Glass at the Rhode Island School of Design.
Sasaki creates works that treat glass as a medium for preservation and memory. Through her engagement with plants and the natural world found in everyday life, she traces and expresses a “subtle sense of nostalgia” as evidence of both her own presence and that of others. She has exhibited extensively both in Japan and internationally. In 2023, she presented Subtle Intimacy: Here and There as a residency exhibition at the Portland Japanese Garden.
She has also participated in numerous international exhibitions, including Aichi Triennale 2025, Between Ashes and Roses in 2025, the Northern Alps Art Festival in 2024, and the Cheongju Craft Biennale in 2023.
Among her major awards are the 33rd Rakow Commission in 2018 at the Corning Museum of Glass and the Grand Prize at the Toyama International Glass Exhibition 2021 at the Toyama Glass Art Museum.
Her works are included in the collections of institutions such as the Corning Museum of Glass, the Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, the Latvian National Museum of Art, the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, and the Toyama Glass Art Museum.