Artist CV

Artist's statement

(b 1992US. Lives and works in Brooklyn)

Nakazato’s work maps the twin nature of her Japanese-American identity by interrupting traditional landscape motifs. She constructs monuments to fragmentation through the development, scrutiny and synthesis of patchy topographies pocked with voids, lapses, barriers and mistranslation. Each of her pieces begins with an objective starting point, such as a stock photograph or a screenshot from Google Maps, which purports realness in its representation. This neutral medium is then conjoined with Nakazato’s own sentimental, idiosyncratic memories of her time in Japan. Her works are made through analogue (graphite, acrylic, watercolour) and out-dated digital media (simulations of Mac and Microsoft paint), then layered and flattened through printmaking processes. She says: “This materials-based process is conceptually relevant to my interest in language and the inevitable palimpsest of lived experience, all arriving at a point of aesthetic distillation.”

Group exhibitions

2020: Twilight (with Mathew Zefeldt), 5-50 Gallery, Queens; Roadside Picnic (with Brian Zegeer), Field Projects, New York (curated by Rachel Frank); 2018 A Nervous Rock Stands in the Sunset, NARS Foundation, Brooklyn, NY Group Exhibitions
2021: MAIL, Olympia, New York, NY (curated by Anna Berlin and Ali Rossi); Dissecting the Cyborgian Swamp Thang, Super Dutchess, New York (curated by Andrew Woolbright)
2020: A Bell, Sahara West Gallery; The Seeds Worthy of Life Inside the Earth, Flatlands (curated by Mitch Patrick) GIFC NYC; The Hole, New York; Enough! or #toomuch, SPRING/BREAK, New York
2019: American Earthquake, VACATION Gallery, New York; Constructed Sites/Unfamiliar Selves, Lower East Side Printshop, New York; Magic Wave Summer 2019, Online Exhibition, Young Space; Rhythm Garden, Geary Contemporary, New York; Twist and Twine, Paradice Palase, Long Island City; juried grand prize winner Awaken, Lower East Side Print Shop, New York; GIFC NYC, The Hole, New York; Gossamer, La Bodega, Brooklyn
2018: Flat File Program Opening, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, New York; Take Home a Nude, Sotheby’s, New York; All My Friends, Right Behind the New Museum, New York; Practice: in Progress, NARS Foundation, Brooklyn; Online Show #51: Our Souls to Keep, Field Projects, New York; artBangall, Bangall, NY; Return of the Living Dudd, JONALDDUDD, Brooklyn; After Exit, Smart Objects, Landers, Tribeca Ball, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY; Visual Art Alumni Exhibition, Anderson University, Anderson
2017: Single Fare, New York Academy of Art, New York; Leipzig Summer Residency Exhibition, New York; NY Summer Exhibition, Leipzig International Artist Programme, (LIA), Leipzig; DE TriBeCa Ball, New York Academy of Art, New York
2016: Brandon Fellowship Exhibition, Greenville Center for Creative Arts, Greenville; Telling Her Story, Greenville Center for Creative Arts, Greenville
2015: SELFIE, Clemson University Center for Visual Arts, Greenville; THE FL3TCH3R EXHIBIT, The Reece Museum, Johnson City
2014: Twenty-Three Sisters, Gallery 1308, Madison; Debbie Millman Workshop Exhibition, Anderson Arts Center, Anderson; 2nd Annual Collegiate Invitational, Spartanburg County Library, Spartanburg; Senior Show, Anderson Arts Center, Anderson University, Anderson
2013: Summer Show, D.C. Arts Center, Washington, DC; 1st Annual Collegiate Invitational, Spartanburg County Library, Spartanburg

Awards & residencies

2021: The Hopper Prize, shortlisted
2020: Emergency Grant, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, New York
2019: FST StudioProjects Fund
2017: Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant
2016: Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant Academy Scholar Award, New York Academy of Art, New York
2015: Brandon Fellowship Recipient, The Greenville Center for Creative Arts, Greenville
2014: Outstanding Student in Painting & Drawing, Anderson University, Anderson, First Place, 2nd Annual Collegiate Invitational, Spartanburg County Library, Spartanburg
2010: Art Scholarship/Academic Scholarship, Anderson University, Anderson
2020: TSA STAR, Tiger Strikes Asteroid New York, Brooklyn, NY
2019: Selected Bibliography 2019 Art Maze Mag, Summer Issue 13 2019 Artspace.com, Torey Akers, “The Best of Summer Group Shows: 5 Emerging Artists Who Deserve Solos Next Season”
2018: Keyholder Residency, Lower East Side Printshop, New York, NY
2017: Leipzig International Art Programme (LIA) Residency, Leipzig, DE
2016: Greenville Journal, Caroline Hafer, “Craft: Naomi Nakazato”, vol. 18, no. 32
2014: Ivy Leaves, Literary Journal of Literature and Art, Hunter Burton & Cory Rabideau, Artist Spotlight, vol. 89 Forge Art Magazine, vol. 3, 47-50 2013 Ivy Leaves, Literary Journal of Literature and Art, vol. 88, page 26- 27, 112-113
2012: Ivy Leaves, Literary Journal of Literature and Art, vol. 87

Collections

Lower East Side Printshop, New York, NY

Greenville Center for Creative Arts, Greenville, SC

Anderson University, Anderson, SC

Education

2018: MFA Painting, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY 2014 BA Painting & Drawing, Anderson University, Anderson, SC Solo + Two Person Exhibitions