MAYUMI NAKAMURA, Jizainohana No 2, 2020
porcelain, glaze, pigment, gold
3 x 6 x 5.5 inches
自在の花 (#12)
Exhibition
New Directions: Japanese Women Artists
November 14 - December 12, 2020
Until the 1950s, even if Japanese women wanted to enter the pottery world, their work at kilns was only an auxiliary process, and they faced physical difficulties while being blocked by various conventions. Therefore, a continuous study began to promote kneading, forming and firing among women who blazed their own paths to become ceramic artists.
Since then, female ceramic artists have expanded their playing field as handicraft "pottery" has been changing into artistic "ceramics" including sculptural works full of creativity and design.
As independent artists, a greater number of female ceramic artists, who are most likely have studied pottery at art universities, pursue and express their world of deep contemplation in clay, and play a part in the diversity of contemporary ceramic art in Japan while freely displaying their unique visions and concepts.
In addition, the bold and precise forms, and fantastic and delicate expressions their works have been increasingly valued overseas in recent years, rather than in Japan.
We are proud to bring you four contemporary Japanese female artists, Mikiko Tomita, Mayumi Nakamura, Sayaka Shingu and Mio Yamaguchi, artists at different stages of their careers for a group exhibition in Boston. Tomita exhibited in the USA more than 10 years ago in a seminal exhibition, Touch Fire at the Smith College, MA while Nakamura, Shingu and Yamaguchi are exhibiting for the first time here.
The exhibition will be held at our gallery located at 460C Harrison Ave Boston MA as well as viewable online. We plan to release videos of the artists talking about their works with a Japanese interpreter. An exhibition catalogue will be published.
Email us at info@laisunkeane.com to make an appointment to view the show in person and for further details.
MAYUMI NAKAMURA, Jizainohana No.2
Universal Flowers (Jizainohana)
I have been familiar with painting and design since childhood. I encountered ceramics during that time, and now I mainly focus on three-dimensional objects and two-dimensional works with abstract paintings. I use the material of ceramics because I'm trying to express "invisible" things such as inner, emotional and spiritual things that spring in me. Therefore, I am strongly attracted to the spirituality of the material of clay, which has been incorporated into life and faith as tools and ritual articles for magic since the primitive times, and the mystery of changing clay and glaze to different substances by firing.
Also, in my creation process, I pictorially paint a single view of the world on a planar ceramic panel or mural with glaze. After that, I create a three-dimensional work with the image that the elements and motifs are coming out of the planar surface and they are freely popping out of that world into reality. It is exactly influenced by the culture of the Rinpa school (one of the major historical schools of Japanese painting) during Japan's decorative period, and its glossy colors and natural designs are replaced in our time, and it is an expression that combines expressionism with the modern Rinpa school that arises from the dialogue with the times.
From the beginning, the title of the production is the message "Universal Flowers (Jizainohana)". The intention is to put a wedge in one's unstable and unreliable sentiment, which sways in the diverse values of our times. It is not a division or a weight but a connection between the self who is swept away by the values of others and the self who wants to be like this, with the thought that "I can be myself as is. Just let my own flowers bloom". In recent years, the "Event Horizon," "COSMIC," and "Grand Bouquet" series that connect oneself with others and recognize various values have been produced.
1976 Born in Miyazaki, Japan
2000 Joshibi University of Art and Design
2001 Worked for a clothing manufacturer as a designer (until 2006)
2006 Started a career as a ceramic artist at Art amane in Miyazaki
2007 Designed and created a ceramic mural painting for Miyazaki Aceland in Miyazaki
Solo Exhibitions
2012 The Secret Garden / Miyazaki Yamakataya Art Gallery, Miyazaki
2013 The Secret Garden vol.2 / Miyazaki Yamakataya Art Gallery, Miyazaki
2014 Mayumi Nakamura Ceramic Exhibition / Matsuzakaya Nagoya, Aichi
2015 Mayumi Nakamura Ceramic Exhibition - Kaku - / Gallery Art space Irosora, Miyazaki
2016 Mayumi Nakamura Ceramic Exhibition / Gallery Tosei, Osaka (’15)
2017 Mayumi Nakamura Ceramic Exhibition - Let my own flowers bloom - / Iwataya Mitsukoshi Art Gallery, Fukuoka
Mayumi Nakamura Ceramic Exhibition - Event Horizon - / Miyazaki Yamakataya Art Gallery, Miyazaki
2018 Mayumi Nakamura Ceramic Exhibition - Event Horizon - / Gallery Tosei, Osaka
Mayumi Nakamura Ceramic Exhibition - Void Poem - / Isetan Shinjuku Art Gallery, Tokyo
The 150th Anniversary of Japan-Spain Diplomatic Relations Event - Mayumi Nakamura Exhibition - / The Royal Botanical Garden of Madrid (Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid), Spain
2019 Mayumi Nakamura Ceramic Pictures Exhibition - Let my own flowers bloom - / Miyazaki Bougainvillea Airport Gallery, Miyazaki (’16)
2020 Mayumi Nakamura Ceramic Exhibition - Grand Bouquet - / Shop & Gallery min, Miyazaki