Enjoy a virtual tour through Ken Nwadiogbu’s “Ubuntu” and Fumi Nakamura’s “Look Toward the Future, but Not So Far As To Miss Today.” Now on view through March 27th, click here to schedule a visit to the gallery.
Please visit the following link to explore our virtual tour: https://players.cupix.com/p/VL87Nzlh
Virtual tour courtesy of Birdman Photo
Thinkspace presents a photo tour through Ken Nwadiogbu’s “Ubuntu” and Fumi Nakamura’s “Look Toward the Future, but Not So Far As To Miss Today“. Now on view through March 27th, click here to schedule a visit to the gallery.
Photos courtesy of Birdman
KEN NWADIOGBU – Ubuntu
FUMI NAKAMURA – Look Toward the Future, but Not So Far As To Miss Today
On view: March 6, 2021 – March 27, 2021 | Schedule your visit here.
EXCERPT FROM KEN NWADIOGBU INTERVIEW
What is the inspiration behind this latest body of work? What themes were you exploring?
These works were created between 2020 to 2021. The question was: what did it feel like to be Nigerian during this time and what do I think we can do to make it better.
I experienced a lot of threatening events around me and could connect it with what was happening around the world. The hatred, the war, division and violence. I got really interested in making direct statements through my works concerning this. This gave rise to UBUNTU, an African philosophy made popular by Late Nelson Mandela. The philosophy of togetherness. “I am because we are”. I believe there’s a lot of good we can do if we are United.
Full interview here
EXCERPT FROM FUMI NAKAMURA INTERVIEW
What is the inspiration behind this latest body of work? What themes were you exploring?
I’ve been learning and trying to incorporate my own culture into my work more. I moved to the United States when I was eleven. I stopped learning Japanese language, culture and history since then, instead, I tried to focus on learning English and American culture to fit in. Growing up in the United States made me question my existence, ethnicity and culturally more, and I was often being asked “which country is home to you?,” which troubled me a lot.
Now I am in my mid-thirties, looking back on all the work I made and working through many hours of psychoanalysis, that question no longer troubles me anymore, but it rather made me curious about my own existence, concentrating on being alive and what to look forward to in the future.
Full interview here
Thank you to our friends over at Juxtapoz for featuring Fumi Nakamura’s upcoming exhibition ‘Look Towards the Future, But Not So Far As to Miss Today’, opening Saturday, March 6th. Please visit the Juxtapoz website for the full piece, and schedule your visit to the gallery to see intricate pieces in person here.
Like the Samurai, Nakamura employs a terrible beauty in her gouache, graphite and colored pencil renderings. Furry animals curl up and caress, their pearly whites sprouting into fangs. Blossoms and leaves tickle in sensuous suffocation, while fragile faces confront skeletal ancestors. The Japanese born artist summons an almost ancestral understanding of detail and nuance paying homage to the floral art of ikebana, where line, form and shape are elevated in her colorful works
– Juxpapoz.com / Look Toward the Future, But Not So Far As to Miss Today: Fumi Nakamura @ Thinkspace Projects
Inside the studio of Fumi Nakamura while she prepares for ‘Look Toward the Future, but Not So Far As To Miss Today’
March 6, 2021 – March 27, 2021
Thinkspace Projects is pleased to present this new solo exhibition from artist Fumi Nakamura. ‘Look Towards the Future, But Not So Far As To Miss Today’ is a new body of work depicting flora and fauna. Each element is carefully selected to represent elements of life, memory, body and soul. Nakamura pulls from the subconscious, using metaphor and imagery to create striking pieces.
Fumi Nakamura draws inspiration from the Japanese phrase meaning “language of flower.” In line with this concept, each flower has different meanings right down to the positioning. Colors play a huge role as well, and each work becomes full of phrases and meanings. One tulip can mean a variety of things from “compassion” to “confession of love” to the “lost love” of a white tulip.
Different from her previous work in which she frequently incorporated negative space, this new series is filled up to the edges. Using custom “coffin” or “container” imagery, Nakamura takes inspiration from the funeral ceremony where we last see and connect with another being physically and reflect on the past together. This collection of works is layered and complex both in visuals and meaning
Video by Birdman
