MAJIMA Naoko Exhibition "In The Dense Forest"（TOKYO）

We are pleased to announce MAJIMA Naoko solo exhibition “In the Dense Forest” at Mizuma Action, Nakameguro, starting on March 10th. 

Majima is flourished especially in overseas recently such as at solo exhibition at ARCO, an art fair in Madrid (2008), a group show at GALERIE CLAUDE SAMUEL, Paris (2008), as well as at Antoine de Galbert’s private Collection (2009). 

This exhibition is composed of pencil paintings, and objets d’art made with various materials. 

She creates pencil painting which has no underdrawing, and it starts with a single line, and multiplies as if one line leads to another and becomes bundle, then form a swirl. The monotone world, painted with various pen pressures, is like some beloved scenes yet we’ve never seen in reality. Majima says there are enormous amount of memories of life from the ancient time to now. In her pencil painting, there are algae swinging in the water, microorganisms, sperm, blood vessel, as well as some figures remind us of inside our body. It might be a world that resides deep in our hearts without even knowing its existence. 

The carp and human shaped objets d’art are made with various color thread and different patterns of clothes. Although their appearance is that of non-exist in our real world, and we might stare at them with hesitation, we feel their breath and their sign of presence. A carp, one of Majima’s popular motives, is covered with threads that look like another living creatures, opens its mouth and come down on us as if it swallows every kind of emotions (delight, anger, sorrow and pleasure) . They sidle toward us with gooey sound of Nyuru Nyuru Nyoro Nyoro and arouse a sense of “life” and “death” that we are unconscious of in daily life. 

As Majima says that she is in awe of “life” and “death,” the title of this exhibition, “In the Dense Forest” contains her reverence for it. “I want to rediscover life force in unexploited area”, said the artist. That is where bright colors and wild lives bound, and concurrently it’s an inaccessible world where the primal living creatures reveal their wild and scaturient pathos.

However, in closeup, there are resplendences that we’re never able to capture by word such as wit or sophistication. And therefore we see a beauty of purity in them.

We hope that the viewers could discover the deep world of Majima’s works with their own eyes. 

Nyuru Nyuru Nyoro Nyoro:

is the title of Majima’s solo exhibition at Gallery Maki-Tamura in 1991.