yoshinobu nakagawa, "farmer's pot - Rosaceae"sept. 8 - oct. 20, 2001 taguchi fine art,ltd. |
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Born in Osaka in 1964, Yoshinobu Nakagawa now resides in Shiga prefecture. He is undoubtedly one of the most promising artists, having received many prizes, including the Jiro Yoshiwara prize in 1989 and also the Showa Shell prize in 1996. We feel his artisanship, which freely controls every kind of materials and the poetic emotions, when looking at the naive form of his work, attracts many people. Plants and the relation between plants and human beingEver since his first solo exhibition in 1987, the year he graduated from Osaka University of Art, Nakagawa's motif has been consistently plants or relationship between plants (nature) and mankind (farmer), or agriculture and cultivation, which is fundamental work to us. He puts pigment on canvas as farmers sow plant seeds on earth. Thus for Nakagawa, relationship between artist and his work resembles that of farmer and plants.Farmer's PotMain work of the exhibition will be the "farmer's pot". Nakagawa has been producing series of works titled "farmer's pot" since 1995. In this series, he chooses certain families of plants, true grasses or legume for instance, and produces the same number of drawings as the number of plants in that famiy, which are cultivated by human beings all around the world. These drawings are very unique in that, they consist of images of pottery and small circles representing plant seeds, using wax soot. Each drawing is assigned a name of the individual plant in that family. Nakagawa sometimes lets unglazed pottery made by the artist himself, join the group of drawings.Artists' bookNakagawa has always displayed his works flat, covering the wall, framing every drawing. In this time, as a new experiment, he organizes these drawings in the form of a book and will publish them as an artists' book, in the image of a botanical encyclopedia. As a result, this new work, "farmer's pot - Rosaceae" obtains feelings of depth and time, as we look into the work page by page.Rose Family - RosaceaeNakagawa chose the "rose family" for this particular edition of the "farmer's pot". 22 drawings were produced, as there are 22 plants in rose family cultivated in the world, including apple, plum, quince, etc. A sheet indicating the botanical name in Latin, English and Japanese accompanies each drawing. All texts are printed in letterpress at The Kazui Press, Ltd., and the cloth box is produced by Atelier la meduse. Edition is limited to 10 copies, plus 2 Artist Proof. One deluxe edition bound by the artist himself is also scheduled. Every drawing is original and thus unique. Published by taguchi fine art, ltd.checklist of the installation 1. "farmer's pot-Convolvulaceae", 1996, marble, cowhide, glass, wood/ soot on paper, acrylic, tracing paper 2. "farmer's pot-Rosaceae (deluxe edition)", 2001, terra-cotta, cowhide, beeswax, plaster, seed, soot on paper, acrylic, tracing paper 3. segment(sack)#3, 2001, cotton, wool, acrylic, wood, beeswax, string, bamboo 4. "light pot", 1993, reclaimed paper, acrylic, color, metalic powder, beeswax, string 5. "farmer's pot-Rosaceae", 2001, 22 original drawings (soot on paper, acrylic, tracing paper) edition limited to 10 copies plus 2 A.P. 6. "farmer's pot", 1993, terra-cotta, cowhide, beeswax, wood, stone 7. "light pot-blue",1997-2001, reclaimed paper, cotton, acrylic, color, cowhide, beeswax, metalic powder, string 8. "farmer's pot-sunflower",1994, terra-cotta, cowhide, beeswax, iron, marble |