Nagakura 07

NAGAKURA KE NIC HI

K E N I C H I N A G A K U R A’ S S O N G B O O K

Kenichi Nagakura’s meticulous bamboo art is literally flying around the world. In the USA and Western Europe his intimate and eccentric creations make space among cool, intellectual, often ironic contemporary artworks. In private and public settings Nagakura’s creations distinguish themselves quite thoroughly. His works feel irrepressibly alive, especially in a cultural context where shopping for parts and subcontractors now comprises a significant percentage of artistic practice.

Contemporary art and the rooms they inhabit are born from generations of a mechanistic worldview that divides everything into parts and precludes knowing things from their tender beginnings to their full - blown realization. In this chilly mix, Nagakura’s agile bamboo creations, perched on the boundary of nature and culture, resonate with warm hands - on vibrancy.

Unwrapping each new work of bamboo for this exhibition was a day of oohs, ahs, and wows. These pieces successfully bypass language and strike us dumb with their ability to create new atmospheres.

For more than two decades now Nagakura has been pushing traditional Japanese basket making into new terrain with his mastery and experimentation. In this body of work, he reaches new levels of refinement and competence along with changes in his weaving techniques.

How is it possible for one artist to be a virtuoso of so many different textures and tones? Think of great jazz musicians, especially horn players, and the range of their improvisational genius.

Edge and Dancing Star are two new bold, muscular objects of wide angular bamboo that are perfect demonstrations of Nagakura’s

Feather Cape 2007, 15 x 8 x 17 inches (left) Cover: Edge 2007, 11 x 12 x 14 inches

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versatility and musicality. Rubbed to a sheen and encrusted with clay, they look armored, primordial and ominous. Another innovation is the streaming weave of Ikat and Gathering Sounds used to express radically different affects. The streaming weave of the bucket shape speaks of overflowing water, and the streaming in the wings of Gathering Sounds suggests the reverberating strings of an Aeolian harp.

In many of these objects Nagakura keeps his blend of plant and root, and builds on earlier themes. He revisits the fine weave that mimics flowing fabric in his signature headless “Human Being” figures, creating new elongated, serene masks in a mellow tone that nod to Henry Moore, Modigliani and Easter Island. With the action figure Feather Cape he literally unleashes the restrained and shrouded “Human Beings”. Like the earlier walking figures, the neck of Feather Cape is a single bamboo segment separated into thin strands that expand to build the full figure, but this figure is twisting and leaping, its robes untangling and afloat. He also returns to his vocabulary of dried leaf shapes, but instead of the weightlessness of earlier sculptures, the gnarly red dense swirls of Bamboo Cave are a carrier of grandeur and rough gravitas.

Nagakura’s consummate skill is at the service of his singular vision.

His diverse works can only have come from listening to the world he inhabits, immersion in the near miraculous growth of bamboo, and the stirrings of his heart. In their color, range and innovation they are dispatches of deep interconnectedness and the intricate edges between nature and culture. Like great jazz, his songs are sung for everyone, and these new releases are ready to warm up the bigger world.

MaLin Wilson - Powell Woman 2007, 9 x 6 1/2 x 24 inches

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A R T I S T’S S TAT E M E N T

Ten years ago I began focusing my artistic endeavors towards the United States and am now having my fifth solo show at the TAI Gallery in Santa Fe. I want to express my sincere thanks and appreciation to TAI Gallery and their collectors.

The process of creating my artwork began with the formation of my artistic nature and with my environment in Japan. Beyond these innate states I feel an invisible force guiding the formation of an intangible idea into a tangible object. This is a solitary challenge, concentrating all of my being to create these works.

In preparing for this exhibition I reviewed all my previous works. As a consequence, many pieces inspired me to revisit my earlier ideas and forms. I believe there will be a different awareness of my new work exhibited along side a series of my older work. I look forward to seeing this exhibition with great pleasure.

Nagakura Kenichi

The Space In Between 2007, 16 x 8 x 13 inches

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Layering 2007, 8 1/2 x 6 1/2 x 16 inches Gathering Sounds 2007, 9 x 5 3/4 x 13 3/4 inches (right)

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Brimming 2007, 26 x 15 x 18 inches

Net 2007, 7 1/2 x 8 x 111/2 inches Ikat 2007, 14 x 9 x 15 inches (right)

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Dancing Star 2007, 26 x 8 x 16 inches

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Bamboo Cave 2007, 18 x 13 x 13 inches

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Draping 2007, 10 x 7 x 17 inches Flowing Wood Form 2007, 8 x 6 x 15 inches (left)

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NAGAKURA KE NIC HI 1952 1975 1982 1985 1988 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1999 2000 2001

2002 2003

2004 2005 2006

Born in Shizuoka City Studied under Grandfather Solo exhibition at Gallery Takei, Numazu Solo exhibition at Shin-Gifu Department Store Solo exhibition at MOA Gallery, Nagoya Solo exhibition at Umeda Hankyu, Osaka Solo exhibition at Gallery Kouki, Paris, France Solo exhibition at Gallery Kukan, Shizuoka Solo exhibition at Gallery Space Ten, Tokyo Solo exhibition at Gallery Space Ten, Tokyo Solo exhibition at Matsuya, Tokyo Solo exhibition at Akasaka Yu Gallery, Tokyo Solo exhibition at Isetan, Shizuoka Exhibition at German Culture Center, Tokyo Solo exhibition at TAI Gallery, Santa Fe Exhibited in “Bamboo Masterworks”, Asia Society, New York Exhibited in “Bamboo Masterworks”, San Francisco Asian Art Museum, Honolulu Academy of Art, Aspen Art Center, and Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena Winner of Cotsen Bamboo Prize 2000 Solo exhibition at TAI Gallery, Santa Fe Exhibited in “The Next Generation”, University of Arkansas Exhibited in “Three Views of Bamboo: Fujinuma, Nagakura, Shono”, Kansas City Jewish Museum, Overland Park, Kansas Solo Exhibition at TAI Gallery, Santa Fe Exhibited in “Contemporary Japanese Bamboo Art”, Visual Arts Center of Richmond, Virginia Solo exhibition at TAI Gallery, Santa Fe Exhibited at the Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, New York Exhibited in “Power & Delicacy: Master Works of Japanese Bamboo Art”, TAI Gallery Exhibited in “Hin: The Quiet Beauty of Japanese Art”, Grinnell College, Iowa Exhibited in “Hin: The Quiet Beauty of Japanese Art”, Chicago Cultural Center Exhibited at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts Collaboration with Daniel Ost at Nocturne, Brussel, Belgium Mask: Woman 2007, 6 x 4 1/2 x 14 1/2 inches ( right ) Back Cover: Mask: Man 2007, 7 x 4 x 19 inches Design by Michael Motley

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Photography by Gary Mankus

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