Kiyoshi NAKAGAMI

“As a painter, there is nothing more difficult to represent than light. The ones who can do that are the greatest painters, greatest artists.” - Kiyoshi Nakagami

The audience is drawn to focus on the disposal of light in the painting, its density which varies from one painting to the other, and of course its dispersion within the dark space. The light spreads through a series of perfectly sumptuous grades. Below the focal point of light, the light must cross an undefined, vaporous matter. In this show you can see paintings with two vaporous matter instead of one. One can also see similar paintings with a similar composition but with a very different intensity and contrast of light. His ability to beautifully reproduce the diffusion of light in a painting is unrivaled.

Because he considers that human being does not rule the Nature, he allows natural processes to develop in his paintings. These perfectly detailed paintings are made without the use of a paintbrush. «Nakagami does not reproduce the light of the natural world. The light of his paintings exists only in painting. The artist’s awareness of time in the concentrated moment in which light is made manifest is closely associated with the surprise of encountering something ephemeral and sublime» (2).

(2) Yamanashi , Toshio. On the New Work of Kiyoshi Nakagami : Light from Afar, in catalogue Kiyoshi Nakagami, The Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura & Hayama, p.15

Born in Shizuoka, Japan in 1949
Lives and works in Chiba, Japan

AWARDS:

2009 Yokohama City Cultural Prize in Art, Yokohama

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS:

The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo

The Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura and Hayama, Kanagawa

Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama

Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Aichi

Kanagawa Prefectural Gallery, Kanagawa

SOLO EXHIBITIONS:

2023 Solo exhibition at Galerie Richard, Paris
Root K Contemporary, Japan
Expo Chicago, Galerie Richard

2022 Expo Chicago, Galerie Richard
Palm Beach Art Fair

2021 Peinture de lumière with Hervé Heuzé, Galerie Richard, Paris
“Kiyoshi Nakagami , Naihatsu – Kengen”, Genra Art, Kanazawa

2020 “Kiyoshi Nakagami”, Galleria Finarte, Nagoya
« Light in Painting », Richard, New York, NY

2019 “Kiyoshi Nakagami”, Richard, Art Paris, Paris
“La Beauté Sublime”, Richard, Paris
“Theophany”, hino gallery, Tokyo

2018-2019 Theophany, Galerie Richard, New York

2018 Imaginary Places, Galerie Richard, Paris
Light from Afar, Lew Allen Galleries, Santa Fe

2016/17 Miles McEnery Gallery, New York

2016 Hino Gallery, Tokyo

2015 Galleria Finarte, Nagoya
Art-Taguchi, Gifu

2015/16 Epiphany II, Galerie Richard, New York

2014 Recent Paintings, Galerie Richard, Paris
Square Paintings, Galerie Richard, New York
Museum Haus Kasuya, Yokohama
Hino Gallery, Tokyo

2013 Hino Gallery, Tokyo

2012 Epiphany, Galerie Richard, New York
Epiphanie, Galerie Richard, Paris
hino Gallery, Tokyo

2011 Galerie Richard, Paris
Hino Gallery, Tokyo

2010 Recent Works, hino Gallery, Tokyo
Hino Gallery, Tokyo

2008 Kiyoshi Nakagami, Kamakura Museum of Art, Kamakura
Espaces de lumière, Galerie Richard, Paris
hino Gallery, Tokyo

2007 Hino Gallery, Tokyo

2005 Art Nova, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo
Peintures de lumière, Galerie Richard, Paris
hino Gallery, Tokyo

2002 Galerie Richard, Paris
hino Gallery, Tokyo

2001 Hino Gallery, Tokyo

2000 Hino Gallery, Tokyo

1999 Samazamana ME 101 Kiyoshi Nakagami, IBM-Kawasaki City Gallery, Kanagawa

1998 Hino Gallery, Tokyo

1997 Hino Gallery, Tokyo

1996 Hino Gallery, Tokyo

1994 Hino Gallery, Tokyo

1993 Tamaya Gallery, Tokyo  hino Gallery, Tokyo

1992 Hino Gallery, Tokyo

1991 Hino Gallery, Tokyo  Drawing Exhibition, hino Gallery, Tokyo

1989 Hino Gallery, Tokyo

1986 Kamakura Gallery, Tokyo

1985 Runan Gallery, Tokyo

1983 Tamaya Annex Gallery, Tokyo

1982 Tamaya Gallery, Tokyo

1981 Kamakura Gallery, Tokyo

1978 Ginza Picture Hall, Tokyo

1977 Modern Art Laboratory, Tokyo

1975 Kanagawa Prefectural Gallery, Kanagawa

1973 Tokiwa Gallery, Tokyo
Tamura Gallery, Tokyo

1971 Studio Fujimi-cho, Kanagawa

GROUP EXHIBITIONS (selection)

2024 ArtMiami, Galerie Richard, Miami, USA

2021 Art Paris, Galerie Richard, Paris

2020 Art Paris +, Galerie Richard, Paris
Art Paris, Paris

2016 The Advent of RINPA – Touring the “RINPA CODE” of the Pre-Modern / Modern / Contemporary,
Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Kyoto

2015 Modern: Blossoming Garden- Oita World Museum, Oita Prefectural Art Museum, Oita
Dawn of Gods – Encounter of Venus, and Spiritual Landscape, East and West, Oita Prefectural
Art Museum, Oita

2014 Art Paris, Galerie Richard, Paris

2013 Context Art Miami, Galerie Richard, Miami

2012 Pulse New York, Galerie Richard, New York

2011 Prolonging Pleasure: Stefan Hoenerloh / Kiyoshi Nakagami, Galerie Richard, Paris
Pulse Miami, Galerie Richard, Miami

2008 Art Amsterdam, Galerie Richard, Amsterdam

2007 Yuichi Higashionna, Risa Sato, Kiyoshi Nakagami,Galerie Richard, Paris

2006 Nihonga Painting: Six Provocative Artists, Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama
Extreme Abstraction, Galerie Richard, Paris
Mineral II, Centre Artistique de Verderonne, Verderonne

2005 Art Nova, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo
Art Paris, Galerie Richard, Paris
St’Art, Galerie Richard, Strasbourg

2004 RINPA, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Tokyo
Lineart, hino Gallery, Gand
art.fair,Galerie Richard, Cologne
Art Paris, Galerie Richard, Paris
Art Frankfurt, Galerie Richard, Francfort-sur-le-Main
Art Rotterdam, Galerie Richard, Rotterdam
Art Beijing, 1st China International Gallery Exposition, hino Gallery, Pékin

2001 The 10th Triennale-India, National Academy of Art, New Delhi

1999 Two Artists Exhibitions, Yokohama Portside Gallery, Kanagawa

1997 14th Yamatane Museum of Art Prize Exhibition, Yamatane Museum of Art, Tokyo
Japanese Contemporary Art Exhibition, National Museum of Contemporary Art Korea, Séoul

1995 13th Yamatane Museum of Art Prize Exhibition, Yamatane Museum of Art, Tokyo
7th Fukuyama Art Project-Pray, Fukuyama Museum of Art, Fukuyama

1993 Beyond the ‘Nihonga’ – An Aspect of Contemporary Japanese Painting, Tokyo Metropolitan Art
Museum, Tokyo

1992 A Perspective on Contemporary Art Among the Figures, The National Museum of Modern Art,
Tokyo / The National Museum of Art, Osaka

1991 Artists in Yokohama ‘91, Yokohama Civic Art Gallery, Kanagawa
The 27th Artists Today Exhibition – The Present as History, Yokohama Civic Art Gallery,
Kanagawa

1990 Drawing Now Exhibition, hino Gallery, Tokyo

1988 Kanagawa Art Annual, Kanagawa Prefectural Gallery, Kanagawa

1980 The 16th Artist Today Exhibition (Feeling and Construction),Yokohama Civic Art Gallery,
Kanagawa

1979 Plane-Attempt of Color and Form, Kanagawa Prefectural Gallery, Kanagawa

1978 Outside of Scrum mage, Kanagawa Prefectural Gallery, Kanagawa

1977 Plane-Attempt of Color and Form, Kanagawa Prefectural Gallery, Kanagawa

1975 Circle, Triangle, Square, Kanagawa Prefectural Gallery, Kanagawa

1974 Plane-Attempt of Color and Form, Kanagawa Prefectural Gallery, Kanagawa

1973 Exhibition of B Seminar, Yokohama Civic Art Gallery, Kanagawa

1972 Exhibition of B Seminar, Yokohama Civic Art Gallery, Kanagawa