First published on 28 October 2021
MAKI NA KAMURA | SETAREH
Maki Na Kamura‘s paintings arise from a profound exploration of the medium itself. Her works interweave not only motifs and techniques from different periods and cultures that reciprocally influence and adapt each other, but also investigate fundamental questions about surface, colour, abstraction, and space.
Maki Na Kamura‘s paintings arise from a profound exploration of the medium itself. Her works interweave not only motifs and techniques from different periods and cultures that reciprocally influence and adapt each other, but also investigate fundamental questions about surface, colour, abstraction, and space.
Her intense and vibrantly coloured paintings depict the way landscapes emerge from our memories or even imagination: shifting and ambiguous. These are images that stem from different times and take shape in our mind’s eye. Owing to an energetic use of paint that shifts between glazes and impasto as well as a variety of different materials—such as oil paint with water, dry pigment, and gouache—the color surfaces oscillate in a dynamic interplay between figuration and abstraction. Larger hues and gestural brushstrokes combine into clearings or shapes resembling trees and clouds, while depth and breadth are created by means of diagonals in the pictorial composition. Human figures can be discerned in active, animated postures across the vibrant landscapes, whose arrangement echoes the paintings’ overall structure, often drawing upon and challenging traditional pictorial compositions.