The American Dream of a persistent Japanese painter who shares nostalgia with her delightful work
After graduating design school in Osaka, Mayumi Nakao (b. 1984, Kobe) realized her long-held dream of living abroad and moved to New York alone in 2013.
Encounters with artists from all over the world who came to New York to pursue their artistic dreams significantly changed her life. Inspired by their work and passionate efforts, she decided to enroll in the Art Students League where she began creating works using oil painting techniques.
In 2022, she held her first solo exhibition in New York. In 2023, she also held a solo exhibition in Tokyo, Japan. Additionally, she has participated in numerous group exhibitions. In 2023, she was selected as one of the ten finalists for the Women Figurative Realist Painters category of The Bennett Prize, which targets female artists across the United States, and exhibited her works at the Muskegon Museum of Art in Michigan. Furthermore, she actively participates in art residencies such as Artist Recidency La Fourchette de Rose in Ivory Coast and she has experience in creating works in Venice, Italy, and Ivory Coast, Africa.
The charm of her works lies in the warm narrative they exude. The loneliness she felt when she moved alone from Japan to the United States underwent a profound transformation when she saw family photos of her friends in New York. The feelings of love and bonds with family and friends, passed on from parent to child and person to person, have no differences based on race, culture, or country; they are a common affection shared by humanity transcending time and space. Through her art, she expresses this as "shared nostalgia."
Drawing inspiration from photos of friends she grew up with in America and from interior design books and American television dramas, she continues to create her world. Additionally, using photos from her own memories of growing up in Japan, she captures images from the late 1980s to the early 1990s in her artwork.
From March 21, 2024, she will hold her first solo exhibition in Europe, titled "Sweet Memories," at Sato Gallery in Paris. The new works she has created for this exhibition include pieces featuring African American friends' families in her traditional style, as well as works featuring herself and her family as motifs for the first time. Anticipation is high to see what stories can be felt from these new works that offer glimpses of the artist's own nostalgic memories. Surely, everyone will recall a nostalgic scene from their childhood.