NORMAL

- Ryuta Nakajima -
(America)

Education

Apr.1999-Mar.2000
Tokyo National University of
Fine Arts and Music Post-Master
Independent Research Program
Sep.1995-Dec.1997
University of California,
San Diego Master of
Fine Arts Program,
Visual Arts Dept. M.F.A.,
awarded Dec. 1997
Sep.1990-Dec.1994
University of California,
San Diego Major in Visual Arts,
Bachelor of Arts,
awarded Dec.1994
Apr.1986-Jun.1990
International School of Geneva,
Switzerland Certificate of
Graduation, Jun.1990
primary and secondary education
in Tokyo, Japan
studied Mikkyo Buddhism
at Senryu-Temple in Fukushima, Japan

Teaching and Work Experience

Aug.2002
Assistant Professor of
Painting and Drawing
at University of Hawaii, Manoa
Sep.2000-Jun.2002
Assistant Professor of
Painting and Drawing
at University of Minnesota,
Twin Cities
Mar.2001
Advisor to Pora Foundation
Visiting Artist
Mar.-Apr.2001
Assistant Director/
Director of Photography of
Jean Pierre Gorin's video project,
"Letter to Chris," Hiroshima, Japan
Apr.1999-Jul.2000
Art Translator at Musashino
Art University, Tokyo
Nov.1998
Visiting Lecturer
at Kansas City Art Institute
Jul.1997
Assistant to Niki de Saint-Phalle,
La Jolla, CA
Sep.1995-Jun.1997
Teaching Assistant
at University of California, San Diego.
Film History with Jean-Pierre Gorin
Film History with Babette Mongole
Film Theory and criticism with
Jean-Pierre Gorin
19th and 20th century
Art History with John Welchman
Introduction to Structuralism
with David Antin

Exhibition of Works

Group:

May.1992
University of California,
San Diego. Spring Art Festival,
La Jolla, CA
May.1994
UCSD Annex Gallery,
with Peter Eversole and Debbie Lee,
La Jolla, CA
Oct.1995
UCSD Annex Gallery,
with Peter Eversole and Debbie Lee,
La Jolla, CA
Jan.1996
UCSD Graduate Gallery,
with Michael Martin, La Jolla, CA
Aug.1996
Virus Gallery, San Diego, CA
July 1997
Athenaeum Gallery, La Jolla, CA
July.1999
Gallery Center Point,
Tokyo, Japan
Jan.2000
Nairan-kai, T.N.U.F.M.,
Toride, Japan
Nov.2000
" All Systems Go"
Tweed Museum, Duluth, MN
Aug.2002
"normal.life" SPICA Museum, Tokyo
Sep.2002
NORAML.life@OSAKA Studio J, Osaka
"NORMAL-synergestics age"
Izutsuya, Hiroshima
"NORMAL@FUKUOKA"
Co-operative Studio Warehouse
No.3, Fukuoka

Individual:

Oct.1996
UCSD Graduate Gallery, La Jolla CA
May.1997
UCSD Graduate Gallery, La Jolla CA
July.1997
Quint Gallery, San Diego CA
Nov. 1998
Dirt Gallery, Kansas City, MO
Mar.1999
Gallery Center Point, Tokyo Japan
Mar.2001
Catharine Nash Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
Apr.2001
St. Paul Gallery, St. Paul, MN
July.2001
South La Brea Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

Grants, Awards and
Commissioned works

Dec.1990
Mural design commissioned
by International School of Geneva,
Switzerland.
Jan.1991
Winner of United Nations
Postal Stamp Design Contest,
Geneva, Switzerland.
Mar. 1994
US Grant, La Jolla, CA
Sep.1995
Two year scholarship to MFA Program
at UCSD, La Jolla, CA
Sep.1996
Fall Research Grant, UCSD, La Jolla, CA
Dec.1996
Russell Foundation Grant,
UCSD, La Jolla, CA
May. 1997
Book cover design, commissioned
by Hent de Vries and Samuel Weber
for "Violence, Identity, and
Self- Determination,"
Stanford University Press, CA
2001.7.
South La Brea Gallery,
Los Angeles, CA
July.1997
Third place winner of Athenaeum
Annual Juried Exhibition, La Jolla, CA
Aug.1998
Honorable portrait commissioned
by Hyosuke Kujiraoka
(ex-vice-chairman of Japanese House of Representatives) Tokyo, Japan

For the last eight years, my paintings have investigated in different ways the idea of superimposition, its implications and effects. Of my paintings from the last five years, there are notably three different manifestations: abstract field over the figurative, tactile field over the figurative, and figurative over figurative. Although these manifestations are seemingly dissimilar, they nonetheless are based upon the idea of superimposition as such: neutralization, fragmentation, and duration. All three aspects help to create a heterotopia, a space whose proliferation of possible meanings and relationships obscures any unifying ground, thereby dissolving each stable object into an incoherent multiplicity which would then metamorphosize into a complex and singular piece of reality. However, during my experimentation (1996-1997), I encountered a fundamental problem with this system of superimposition. I have come to recognize superimposition as a conceptual and analytical construct that dictated the production of my paintings.. This construct apparently stands at variance with the experience of painting, as I conceive it. Briefly, I feel that the experience of painting is a constant oscillation between the state of "jiga" (a Buddhist term for worldly desire which roughly translates to "ego") and that of "muga" (which approximately translates to "self"). This experience is a certain drama, which consists in a complex weaving of "jiga" as the intellectual and emotional aspects within the world of logical differentiation, and of "muga" as the inexplicable fusion between the painter and Nature. Within the development of this drama, if the painter is lucky, he will be able to infuse the state of "muga" into the painting. In this way, the painting will possess the unexplainable quality of Nature and be able to exist as an individual, autonomous reality that transcends, although it may include, the painter's ideology and his socio-political environment. If the painting conveys this quality, it can thus be described as extra-temporal: it exceeds the confines of personal ideology and social or artistic trends. A strong painting is evidence of this drama; its energy derives from the painter's life force, which is transmitted to the painting during the creative process. In light of these recent reflections, it seems to me that it is essential to investigate this rather mystical aspect of painting.

Ryuta Nakajima