Light From Afar Recent Work by Kiyoshi Nakagami
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Kiyoshi Nakagami Light From Afar
April 27 - June 3, 2018
LewAllenGalleries Railyard Arts District | 1613 Paseo de Peralta | Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 | tel 505.988.3250 www.lewallengalleries.com | contact@lewallengalleries.com
cover: Untitled (detail), 2015, acrylic, india ink, and gold-inflected mica on canvas, 76.5 x 76.5 in
Kiyoshi Nakagami Light from Afar Kiyoshi Nakagami’s powerful canvases burst with an elemental tension between light and darkness rendered in gold mica-enriched acrylic paint, which is dispersed through the use of gravity over an extraordinary, glowing surface. Nakagami’s dramatically lit canvases appear to be intricate depictions of a vaporous night sky, at once radiant and brooding.
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Untitled, 2012, acrylic, india ink, and gold-inflected mica on canvas, 76.5 x 76.5 inches 3
Untitled, 2015, acrylic, india ink, and gold inflected mica on canvas, 24 x 24 in 4
Evocative of awe-inspiring environmental phenomena (a sun eclipsed by plumes of smoke, billowing forms reminiscent of moonlight streaming through the clouds on a dark night), Nakagami’s works are also tinged with a distinctly otherworldly quality.
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Untitled, 2015, acrylic, india ink, and gold inflected mica on canvas, 24 x 24 in 6
Untitled, 2012, acrylic, india ink, and gold-inflected mica on canvas, 89.5 x 71.5 in 7
Untitled, 2015, acrylic, india ink, and gold inflected mica on canvas, 24 x 24 in 8
Untitled (detail)
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Golden light—emanating from an unseen source—is Nakagami’s true subject, and its glow illuminates the edges of dark, vaporous forms, creating a sense of suspension between fantasy and reality. That titles are not used by Nakagami reflects the ambiguity he infuses in his work. He seeks to create an atmosphere that is that is both ephemeral and sublime.
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Untitled, 2015, acrylic, india ink, and gold inflected mica on canvas, 51.25 x 76.5 in 11
Untitled, 2015, acrylic, india ink, and gold inflected mica on canvas, 24 x 24 in 12
Untitled, 2017, acrylic, india ink, and gold inflected mica on canvas, 24 x 24 in 13
Untitled, 2015, acrylic, india ink, and gold inflected mica on canvas, 76.5 x 76.5 in 14
Nakagami’s paintings embody the Japanese aesthetic of yōgen, which refers to the profound grace and mysterious subtle beauty of the universe. It also conveys nihonga, a style of Japanese art that, through the use of traditional materials, rejects the western artistic mode of imitating reality to instead concentrate on manifesting the essence of an environment. Following this principle, Nakagami does not try to capture the natural world through artistic representation; rather, his art relishes in getting at the spirit of nature by creating an indeterminate, dreamlike space that verges on pure abstraction.
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Nakagami begins his process by coating a canvas with acrylic paint and dusting mica-enriched gold pigment across the surface. He then moves and maneuvers the canvas, allowing gravity to affect the dispersion of pigment. Nakagami’s dependence on gravitational force eclipses his own artistic gesture, directing attention to the resultant work rather than the artist’s ego. This unconventional approach, and his use of traditional Japanese materials (gold), alludes both to nihonga as well as contemporary means of artmaking (acrylic paint). Devoid of brushwork or any other sign of the artist’s hand, Nakagami’s metaphysically charged canvases conjure an arresting atmosphere of meditative contemplation through a remarkable articulation of light.
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Untitled, 2017, acrylic, india ink, and gold inflected mica on canvas, 24 x 24 in
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Untitled, 2017, acrylic, india ink, and gold inflected mica on canvas, 24 x 24 in 19
Untitled, 2017, acrylic, india ink, and gold inflected mica on canvas, 24 x 24 20
Kiyoshi Nakagami b. 1949, Shizuoka, Japan SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2018 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2008 2007 2006 2005 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993
Light from Afar: Recent Work by Kiyoshi Nakagami, LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, NM hino Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Gallery Finarte, Nagoya, Japan Art-Taguchi, Gifu, Japan Epiphany II, Galerie Richard, New York, NY hino Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Recent Paintings, Galerie Richard, Paris, France Square Paintings, Galerie Richard, New York, NY Museum Haus Kasuya, Yokosuka, Japan hino Gallery, Tokyo, Japan hino Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Epiphanie, Galerie Richard, Paris, France Epiphany, Galerie Richard, New York, NY hino Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Galerie Richard, Paris, France hino Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Recent Works, hino Gallery, Tokyo, Japan NAKAGAMI Kiyoshi, The Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura, Japan Espaces de lumière, Galerie Richard, Paris, France hino Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Recent Works, hino Gallery, Tokyo, Japan McMillan Art, Tokyo, Japan hino Gallery, Tokyo Peintures de lumière, Galerie Richard, Paris, France Recent Works, hino Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Recent Paintings, Galerie Richard, Paris, France hino Gallery, Tokyo, Japan hino Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Samazamana ME 101 Kiyoshi Nakagami, IBMKawasaki City Gallery, Kanagawa, Japan hino Gallery, Tokyo, Japan hino Gallery, Tokyo, Japan hino Gallery, Tokyo, Japan hino Gallery, Tokyo, Japan hino Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Gallery Tamaya, Tokyo, Japan hino Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1991 1989 1986 1985 1982 1981 1978 1977 1975 1973 1971
Drawing Exhibition, hino Gallery, Tokyo, Japan hino Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Kamakura Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Gallery Runan, Tokyo, Japan Gallery Tamaya, Tokyo, Japan Kamakura Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Ginza Picture Hall, Tokyo, Japan Modern Art Laboratory, Tokyo, Japan Kanagawa Prefectural Gallery, Kanagawa, Japan Tokiwa Tamura Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Studio Fujimi-cho, Kanagawa, Japan
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2016 2015 2012 2006 2005 1997 1992
The Advent of RINPA – Touring the ‘RINPA CODE’ of the Pre-Modern/Modern/Contemporary, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Kyoto, Japan Dawn of Gods: Encounter of Venus, and Spiritual Landscape, East and West, Oita Prefectural Museum, Oita, Japan Various Representations Related to Light, Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokahama, Japan Nihonga Painting: Six Provocative Artists, Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama, Japan Mineral II, Centre artistique de Verderonne, Verderonne, France Ars Nova, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan Japanese Contemporary Art, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea A Perspective on Contemporary Art Among the Figures, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan and The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Aichi Kanagawa Prefectural Gallery, Kanagawa, Japan The Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura and Hayama, Kanagawa, Japan The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama, Japan 21
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Railyard Arts District | 1613 Paseo de Peralta | Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 | tel 505.988.3250 www.lewallengalleries.com | contact@lewallengalleries.com Š 2018 LewAllen Contemporary LLC Artwork Š Kiyoshi Nakagami