Yoshi Nakagawa

Curator, organizer and participating artist for “Beyond Borders: Oaxaca-Seattle Exchange,” a collective exhibition (opening July 12, 2019), panel discussion (July 11, 2019) and printmaking demonstration (July 13, 2019) at the Institute of Graphic Arts of Oaxaca, Mexico. Showing until August 17, 2019.

Publication: Beyond Borders: Oaxaca-Seattle Exchange, June 2019, book printed at Carteles Editores, Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico.

Opening reception: May 18, 2019, 7-10pm. Gallery open Thursdays-Sundays, 3-7pm until June 8th, 2019.

Three women printmakers from different parts of the world converge in Oaxaca and showcase their artwork at NO NADA Gallery: Oaxacan Mercedes López, South African Michele d’Argent and Japanese-American Yoshi Nakagawa.

Tres mujeres artistas de la gráfica, desde diferentes partes del mundo, convergen en Oaxaca y muestran sus obras en la NO NADA Galería: Mercedes López de Oaxaca, Michele d’Argent de Sudáfrica y Yoshi Nakagawa, japonesa-americana.

Celebrating 30 years of IAGO (Institute of Graphic Arts in Oaxaca), opening April 13th, 2019 and showing until July 2019.

Collective show of women printmakers in Oaxaca, with the theme “Women and Identity,” opening on International Women’s Day, March 8th, 2019 at Takeda Gallery, Oaxaca, Mexico. Showing until April 7th, 2019.

Call for artists to participate in a relief printmaking project at Museo de la Filatelia de Oaxaca (MUFI), Lotería Gráfica: Filatelia + Béisbol. I will teach linocut techniques with this theme, March 5th-May 16th, 2019, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 4-7pm. The program is free including materials.

Collective exhibition of graphic artists residing in Oaxaca, Mexico. Opening reception: November 10, 2018, 5pm at Centro de las Artes de San Agustín, Etla, Oaxaca, Mexico. Showing for 3 months.

Printmaking fair, October 31 & November 1, 11am-9pm, at Taller Espacio Alternativo. Showcasing over 100 printmakers in Mexico. Opening reception: October 31, 7-9pm. Free entry & workshops

Opening reception: May 26, 2018 at 7pm. Showing for a month, Oaxaca, Mexico.

Opening reception: Saturday April 21st, 2018, 7pm at Galería Arte de Oaxaca. Showing for a month.

Paper Dolls

As a child, I played with Japanese paper dolls, and paper seemed to be my preference over plastic Barbies and high-tech Atari video games. I still have an affinity for paper, as I print copper etchings and woodblocks, fold origami into mobiles, or create collages from Washi (Japanese paper) with Japanese motifs. Paper Dolls is a retrospective of my childhood, my roots, and my femininity. Creating art has been a form of therapy, a way to express and nurture my inner child without language or criticism. In my experience, the process of creating equates to the process of healing.

Flotante

In conjunction with Paper Dolls, Flotante is a series of mobiles that display paper and textile in a three-dimensional way so that Washi and Pojagi (Korean silk) can interact with light and shadow, breeze and movement. Mobile-making has transformed my two-dimensional patterning artwork into floating sculptures, as Ukiyo-e (Japanese woodblock prints) also literally means “pictures of the floating world.”