I create sculptural installations with ceramics as my primary medium that explore a sense of place, relationship, identity and formal structure. My work challenges the aesthetic restraint of my traditional cultural roots through active experimentation with new media and contemporary issues: cross-cultural, multi-faceted contemporary sculptural forms that reflect and challenge our specific time, place, culture, and social environment. I consider both the macro and micro worlds and how they shift within the internal, human and subjective perspective, how they become increasingly confused, chaotic and full of turmoil. My work questions the tenuous connection between the two worlds; the internal subjective self and the external world of cultural façade.

http://www.yukinakamura.com


Yuki Nakamura graduated from Joshibi University of Art and Design, Tokyo in 1994, and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from University of Washington in 1997. She has had solo exhibitions at Peeler Art Center, DePauw University in Greencastle, SOIL Gallery in Seattle and Howard House Contemporary Art in Seattle. Her multimedia collaborations have been featured at Henry Art Gallery in Seattle, Santa Fe International New Media Festival and Kittredge Gallery in Tacoma. Her work has been reviewed in international art magazines, such as Ceramics Monthly, Art in America, Whitewall and Sculpture Magazine. She has also been awarded numerous prestigious awards including the Pollock-Krasner Grant, Artist Trust Fellowship, and the Joshibi Creative and Research Fellowship. She has participated in multinational artist-in-residence programs in France, Italy, Japan and the US. Her work is part of the Tacoma Art Museum permanent collection, the Microsoft collection, and the Swedish Cancer Institute collection.

Solo Exhibition

2013 Kukai: Sea and Sky, collaboration with Robert Campbell, Kittredge Gallery, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA (upcoming)

2012 Kukai: Sea and Sky, collaboration with Robert Campbell, SOIL, Seattle, WA

2010 Illuminant, Howard House Contemporary Art, Seattle, WA

2009 Poetic of Restraint, Dan & Gail Cannon Gallery of Art, Western Oregon University, Monmouth, OR

2007 The Logic of Place, Peeler Art Center, DePauw University, Greencastle, IN

2006 Floating Plaster / City Motion, collaboration with Robert Campbell, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA Suspended, Kittredge Gallery, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA

2005 Mapping the Moment, Howard House Contemporary Art, Seattle

2003 Red Stair, Window Dressing Urban Art Installation, Woolworth Window, Tacoma, WA

Prize

2011 Tacoma Arts Initiative Program Grant, Tacoma Arts Commission, Tacoma, WA (also in 2003)

2010 Grant for Art Project, Artist Trust, Seattle, WA (also in 2005 and 1999)

2009 Nominee, Foundation of Art Award, The Greater Tacoma Community Foundation, Tacoma, WA

2007 Arts Special Project Program Grant, 4Culture, Seattle, WA (also in 2006 and 2005)

2007 Nominee, The Neddy Artist Fellowship Award, Behnke Foundation, Seattle, WA

2006 CityArtist Projects Grant, City of Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, Seattle, WA

2004 Joshibi Intensive Work and Research Fellowship, Tokyo, Japan

2002 Artist Trust / Washington State Arts Commission Fellowship, Seattle, WA

2002 PONCHO Scholarship, Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, WA

2001 The Pollock-Krasner Grant, The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Inc, New York, NY

2001 George Tsutakawa Memorial Scholarship, Pratt Fine Arts Center, Seattle, WA

Artist in Residence

2006 New Works Laboratory, 911 Media Arts Center and Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA

2005 NAC: Novara Arte Cultura, Novara, Italy

2005 Artist in Residency in Education, Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA

2004 La Napoule Art Foundation, La Napoule, France

2003 PONCHO Artist in Residence, Pratt Fine Arts Center, Seattle, WA

2001 Centrum Creative Residency, Centrum Foundation, Port Townsend, WA

2001 Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT