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YUKA TSURUNO is pleased to announce a solo exhibition by Manika Nagare entitled “Visible Edge” from January 19 (Sat) until February 23 (Sat), 2013. This will be her first one-person show in two years.

Nagare’s previous work, inspired by “an interest in other people”, consists of abstract paintings that depict people who brush past and pass by each other in the midst of modern everyday life using a distinctive palette of colors and linework. These pieces, which seem to dissolve into the landscape, have won her much critical acclaim. Nagare’s new works, which seem to have shifted their focus from people to landscape, were developed by carefully observing the natural environment that she encountered over the course of several visits to the Tohoku region since last year. The title of this exhibition, “Visible Edge”, refers to the colors, lines, and contours found within transient, fleeting natural scenery that create not just an impression of beauty, but also feelings of awe and anxiety, seen through the artist’s own perspective.

Nagare deploys vivid contrasts of light and shade, the expressiveness of her linework, as well as the luster and textural variation of her chosen pigments to give life to her subject. Despite being layered on top of each other, her handling of paint retains a certain translucency, flowing and trickling with graceful ease to produce a sense of both tension and warmth, resulting in visually sumptuous images that take shape on her canvas. The pictorial surfaces that are constructed in this way possess an expansiveness and depth that transcend the rectangular frame of the support, while also delivering a shock to our senses and stimulating our imagination.

This exhibition will showcase an installation of around ten paintings, centering on a large canvas entitled “Visibility” that measures almost two meters across. Despite concerted efforts to offer assistance to the quake- and tsunami-stricken areas through various workshops that she has been leading since last year, Nagare came to the realization that “all I can do is to keep painting”. We hope you take this opportunity to view her most recent works at this exhibition – which will also be the last show to be held at our current location.

Over the course of my repeated trips to Tohoku since last year, the sights that I couldn’t tear my eyes away from were those filled with the beauty of the natural environment – these gorgeous landscapes whose beauty impressed with their sheer strength and intensity.

Although my previous works always tended to reflect my own personal interest in human beings, I have also started to trace the breath and pulse of the landscape that unfolds before my eyes. These works depict the lines that live in nature – both the ones that we can perceive with our eyes, and those that are invisible to us.

All I can do is to keep my eyes diligently trained on them, confront them, and continue painting.

*Nagare has conducted various workshops mostly in Miyagi Prefecture through the “Artist for a Day” (Momentary Artist) program that she initiated herself, and installed some 49 of her own artworks in the Urabandai Kougen Hotel in Fukushima Prefecture.

Manika Nagare was born in Osaka in 1975. After graduating from the department of painting at Joshibi University of Art and Design, she exhibited her work at the VOCA exhibition, a platform for young emerging artists, in 2000 and 2006. Since 2002, she has been an overseas artist-in-residence sponsored by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, and a recipient of the Pola Art Foundation Grant based in New York, showing her work in the US, Turkey and other countries. Major exhibitions include “Glib Reticence, Reticent Glibness” at the Pola Museum Annex, Tokyo, and “Domani: The Art of Tomorrow” at the National Art Center, Tokyo.

Manika Nagare Website
http://www.manikanagare.com/

Manika Nagare,Visible Edge
January 19 - February 23, 2013
Opening Reception for the Artist: January 19, 18:00 - 20:00
Hours: Monday Wednesday - Saturday 11:00 - 19:00