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SPEECH BALLONS IN THE VINUS and 21st Century Dance

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Kengo Nakamura
November 6th (Tuesday) -December 1st (Saturday), 2007

MEGUMI OGITA GALLERY will hold Kengo Nakamura's <Speech Balloon in the Venus and 21st Century Dance> from November 6th to December 1st.

Kengo Nakamura was born in Osaka in 1969, studied Japanese painting at Tama Art University, and completed the master's program at the same school's graduate school of fine arts in 1995. He has been making presentations since 1994, "Two Japanese Paintings Exhibition" with Kumi Machida held at Nishimura Gallery in 2004, and "Six People from Japan X Painting Exhibition" held at Yokohama Museum of Art in 2006. It has been attracting more attention in recent years than the exhibition at.

His works, which he has been publishing since 1994, portray contemporary problems in pop tones and graphical representations. The series of speech balloons that has continued since the early days was a work in which the silhouette of a masterpiece was covered with a manga balloon, and it was still fresh and epoch-making. In addition, the Composition Tokyo series adds red, blue, and yellow to the floor plan of the studio apartment of the year, giving it a sense of humor and cynical while reminiscent of Mondrian's composition paintings.

In the series with the letters "Re" drawn on a pop background, the proliferation of Re by reply emails represents the dialogue of young people in pop-colored clothing by email. The series of speech balloonmen, in which manga balloons are patterned and layered on the silhouette of office workers, seems to represent only the formalized upper side.

Nakamura's series of work seems to be disjointed at first glance, but it is consistent. Nakamura, who has studied Japanese painting since he was a student, has always asked himself the meaning of art for Japanese people. I want to be the same as a person, while having the diversity to accept all of the lonely modern people, by quoting the real feelings for myself living in the present age from various media and incorporating them into my paintings. It is the psychology I hope for.

The "other than myself" series of all-over screens reminiscent of American Abstract Expressionist paintings are studded with supporting silhouettes that do not have the name of Osamu Tezuka, and there are many others for me. However, it makes me think that I am also included in it from the perspective of that person. However, such sociality is an event that he naturally felt, and what is noteworthy is the quiet and beautiful finish drawn with the materials and techniques of Japanese painting that Nakamura has cherished.

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