Well-known Itoshima artist-run gallery, studio and residency program Studio Kura will host an exhibition featuring the work of international artists. This time’s exhibition will feature works by nine artists.
01. Eugenio Nuzzo (Italy)
“Mr.Concrete & other placesI ” / Exhibition style: Painting
Eugenio Nuzzo is an architect and artist living in Paris. As an architect by education and profession, his interest in the subject was never satisfied with the ultimate goal of building-construction. Over the years he has developed a growing interest in architectural drawing, in the techniques of representation and in the boundary between the art of construction and the culture of the image. “Mr.Concrete and other places” is a work on the personality of certain places and architectures. Several times in Japan, and particularly in the Itoshima countryside, I came across places that seemed to me to be autonomous organisms, real characters in the landscape. Observed by unseen or hidden eyes, I took pictures with my phone, and painted the portraits of these places.”
02. Sanae Nicolas (France / Japan)
“SNACK TSUREAI ” / Exhibition style: Drawings
Born in 1992, Sanaé spent her childhood between Japan and France. Her creativity and architectural practice led her to work for the luxury house Hermès, where she worked as a set designer and a visual artist. She was the guest artist for Parisian Hermès windows in 2019 and 2022. “Immersed in the heart of the Studio Kura environment, I develop various projects: collaborations with Japanese and French brands, magazines and painting commissions. I am experimenting with the narration of my universe using a mix of techniques: embroidery, painting, colored pencils, on washi, canvas and textile. The second half of my residency time will be dedicated to new creations related to the emotion of the place and the extraordinary daily routine I live here. I would be delighted to show you the behind-the-scenes of my work and what moves me at the next exhibition.”
03. Anna Abl (Austria)
“Daydreaming” / Exhibition style: Ink and watercolor illustrations
Anna Abl is an freelance illustrator based in Austria. She is currently studying architecture and works besides her studies on different projects like album covers and children book illustrations. Her main inspiration is the world of fantasy and its magical creatures. With her work she hopes to show this magic to others and to bring some wonders and positivity into someone’s everyday life. “With my work I want to combine our existing environment with fantasy and wonder. While exploring the neighborhood of Itoshima and different parts in the surrounding nature I like to daydream a bit and to create my own world imagining the seen things in a different more magical condition. Sometimes during gray and stressful days it can help to bring a little bit of color and wonder into daily life this way. I hope to bring with my drawings this brightness and wonder to the viewer of the image. During my stay in Studio Kura I explore traditional materials. All the paintings are created with ink and partly with watercolor. The ink allows me to go more into detail and create very delicate patterns, while the watercolor helps me to create accents of color to highlight parts of the paintings.”
04. Georgia b Smith (USA)
“Diffuse Bodies” / Exhibition style: Installation
Georgia b. Smith has a background in dance and architectural fabrication. She was a former member of the dance company Leimay, premiering “Borders” at BAM Fisher in 2016.
Georgia b. recently completed a European Tour in Berlin, Prague, and Amsterdam with her series Polite Structures, where she combined performance and wearable architectural elements that doubled as prosthetics. She received her MFA at the University of Michigan where she launched her newest series Cavernous Bodies, which combines soft robotics with her performance practice. This show will be an extension of her latest body of work cavernous bodies.
05. Alice Ford (Australia)
“Unthings” and the image I would like to use is below” / Exhibition style: Installation
Alice is an Artist and recent Architectural Graduate based in Whadjuk Noongar Country, Walyalup, Western Australia. She uses archival research and site observation to depict and investigate the world through painting, drawing, collage and writing. “In her exhibition ‘Unthings’ Alice has focused on the power of stories during her time at Studio Kura. Experimenting through collage and writing, drawing and film photography, she has opened her studio this month for visitors to join the conversation. In the form of an open studio, come and meet all the main characters, and everything inbetween.”
06. Nick Uglow (USA)
“Perceptions of Comfort ” / Exhibition style: Painting
Nick Uglow is an American artist, born and raised in Northern California. He is currently in his fourth year studying at the University of California, Santa Cruz(UCSC) for a bachelors in fine art. “Perceptions of Comfort (2022) is a group of embroidered oil paintings that draw from the duality of comfort and discomfort in relation to varied stimuli. The works aim to illustrate the feelings different people experience related to touch, dreams, aimlessness, light, the passing of time, and far away places. I created the paintings based on journal entries and my experiences, as well as from surveys and interviews, where I asked strangers and friends alike, “Where do we obtain comfort?” The paintings symbolize varying degrees of hostility, with symbolism often taking the form of light guiding a path, and darkness creating a tunnel—or pathway to the unforeseen, always ambiguous in nature. My paintings all include embroidery which aims to cement the viewer in the space through something tactile and even more-so visually tangible. Overall, my series invites the viewer to reflect on comfort related to the recent global pandemic and how to move forward.”
07. Sabina Kafkova (Czech Republic)
“Perceptions of Comfort ” / Exhibition style: Painting
Currently, I am studying illustration and printmaking in the Faculty of Art in West Bohemia. With my work I am trying to focus on art expression through drawing in many different forms. As a creator with so many possible graphic techniques to use I embody a variety of atmospheres and moods in my illustration. “What is truly sacred in Japan? We all heard about variety of shrines, holy stones, trees and many other. However, I feel like maybe there are things beyond traditional meaning of sacred objects. Let’s think outside of box and look at everyday things that are important to today japanese people. Sometimes they take even more pride in them than in some buddhist shrine. Forget about values of fundamentalism for second and try to see new value in mundane things that are usually overlooked. Try to see the truly sacred.”
08. Colin Peel (Australia)
“The Light of Itoshima ” / Exhibition style: Painting
After a 40 year career in science and business he retired several years ago to pursue his passion for art and in particular plein air painting. “On this residency I am paying particular attention to the early morning and evening light and the design elements that emerge in the skies and shadows. I am limiting myself to water colors for ease of use and transport. On previous visits I have focused on the local people at work, and the light in the bamboo forrest’s, some of these pieces can also be displayed.”
09. Matthew Forsythe (Canada)
“MINA ” / Exhibition style: Drawing
Matthew Forsythe is a Canadian artist and author. He writes and draws picture books for children. Several of his picture books have been published in Japan. ”I am interested in the way ideas and shapes look beside each other. I am developing visual and story ideas in Itoshima.”
• 9/24 (Sat.), 9/25 (Sun.)
• 11:00~17:00
• Artist talk: 9/24 (Sat.)14:30~
* To prevent the spread of coronavirus, we ask visitors to use our hand sanitizer and their own facemask if possible to enter, thank you.
• Studio Kura Gallery
• 586 Nijo-masue, Itoshima City, Fukuoka
• 092-325-1773
• https://studiokura.info/en/
