NANCY 2024
Nancy Uyemura Solo Exhibition
Curated by Ana Iwataki & Gino Abrajano
October 4-27, 2024
Opening Reception: October 6, 2024; 1-5PM
A gathering of gatherings.
Like she has countless times before, Nancy Uyemura is inviting you to be part of something. More than just an exhibition, Nancy 2024 is a celebration of the many communities she’s made and that have made her. This selection of her artwork, dating from the 1970s to today, offers a glimpse of the energy and curiosity she brings to all she does.Nancy 2024 at LA Artcore is an artist’s view of Los Angeles, tracing new and old connections between people, the places they’ve made, and the stories they tell. Nancy at LA Artcore tells a different story about art in Los Angeles, in which Asian American artists found their own ways of making work, exhibitions, networks, and homes. These artworks take us from her first exhibition at the Amerasia Bookstore, to commissioning artwork for Japanese Village Plaza, to forgotten galleries in Weller Court and the Little Tokyo Mall, to Costa Rica and Japan, to a warehouse at 800 Traction Avenue. Nancy 2024 is about the artist’s life: its struggles and risks, strangeness and opportunity.This exhibition is a gift of memory—so that we can appreciate what has seemingly disappeared. The gift of perspective—so that we can value what surrounds us. The gift of energy—so we can take heart in what’s possible.
BIO:
Nancy Uyemura is a third-generation Japanese American artist and writer, born and raised in Los Angeles, who currently lives and works in Little Tokyo. She has been exhibiting in the United States and Asia since the 1970s. She has participated in exhibitions at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Modern Art Museum of Ito City, Japan, Riverside Art Museum, Pyong Taek City Museum, Osaka Triennial, among others. In the 1990s, she began working in public art and has a number of public art commissions in California and in Japan. From 1984 to 2017, Uyemura lived and worked at 800 Traction in downtown Los Angeles, participating in a vibrant, diverse artistic community. At the building from 1990-1999, she co-directed Gallery IV with partners Takeo Yamaki and Takeo Morita, gallerists from Japan, as well as her mentor Mike Kanemitsu. They developed a groundbreaking program bringing together Asian American art, the LA art scene of the 1990s, and contemporary Japanese art.Uyemura received her BA in Art and Design from UCLA and MS from USC in Education, then studied in Japan and at Otis College of Art and Design where she met and studied painting with Kanemitsu. Her background in Art and Education has led her to work both as a teacher and in design as the longtime Director of Visual Communications for Mrs. Gooch’s Natural Foods Markets in Los Angeles. In addition, she is a trained practitioner of Feng Shui. Her work across mediums, formats, and context reflects the diversity of her professional and life experiences, which allowed her to pursue her artistic practice. Uyemura has been active in community work for many years and works with the Little Tokyo Historical Society and Sustainable Little Tokyo Arts Action Committee.
Her work in painting, sculpture, printmaking, and book arts has long engaged with energy and transition and has evolved into a kind of healing process. Her work in Feng Shui and energy clearing adds a dimension to her artistic practice. Uyemura shifts from public to private in her artwork, from creating large works that become part of the public environment, viewed by many, to very private, intimate pieces seen by only a few. Her artwork deals with change and energy, the sensual quality of light and the medium, the dynamic effects of the environment, and our interactions.
Ana Iwataki is a cultural historian, writer, and curator from and based in Los Angeles. She is also a PhD candidate in Comparative Media and Culture at the University of Southern California.
Gino Abrajano is a cultural archivist who works with varying degrees of personal, artistic, and community collections through exhibitions development and artifact care. Currently, he supports traveling exhibits for The Walt Disney Archive.