ASUKA ANASTACIA OGAWA

Born in Japan, Ogawa spent part of her childhood and adolescence in Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, the hometown of her maternal family. The artist then completed her studies in Sweden and graduated from Central Saint Martins College in London, and currently lives in Los Angeles in the United States. The cultural diversity that permeated her formative years has had a major impact on her artistic production, which incorporates different visual references, beliefs and traditions.

On vibrant monochrome backgrounds, his dreamlike paintings depict androgynous figures with carefully constructed faces and almond-shaped eyes that seem to look beyond the limits of the canvas. The images portrayed by Ogawa refer, above all, to his Japanese and Afro-Brazilian ancestry. ‘Although I don’t have a theme when I paint, I’m always thinking about my mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, and the beauty, strength, struggle and love of our ancestors,’ says the artist.

For this exhibition, however, the family presence was also physical. For the first time, Asuka produced in the company of her mother, who took an interest in painting and ended up taking an active part in the production of some of the works, either by preparing the backgrounds for the canvases or by producing some of the details. In addition to her direct participation in the development of the works, her mother’s presence provided Ogawa with an atmosphere of calm and serenity that shines through in the works, while her production process was also marked by the artist’s delving deeper into meditative practices and devotion to Mother Nature. During this period, mother and daughter, side by side, were also able to revisit memories of Amelia, Asuka’s maternal grandmother, whose nickname, Melinha, gives this exhibition its name.

The influence of the ancestral legacy on Ogawa’s production is visible not only through the various elements and details present in her canvases, such as clothing, props, objects and animals carefully inserted into her compositions, but also through the representation of everyday situations and themes related to affection and spiritual rites, creating ambiguous and mysterious works loaded with symbolism that connect her to her diverse roots.

Press release courtesy Galeria Nara Roesler