Fumiko Nakashima is a Japanese artist who lives in Mexico, primarily working on surrealist pieces in watercolor. She began exhibiting works in various galleries in Japan but has since settled in the Colonia Roma neighborhood of Mexico City. Her interest in Mexico came when she was seventeen, visiting the country two times to study culture and language before moving permanently in 2010. She has exhibited works in Mexico City, which include the painting of an old trolleybus in the Colonia Hipódromo neighborhood and organizing an event called Pray for Japan in response to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.
Life
Fumiko Nakashima was born on August 24, 1981, in Iwate, Japan, near Miyako. As a child, she displayed interest in narrative drawing and children's literature. Later she studied at the Art Academy of Tokyo, specializing in design, with her first exhibitions at galleries in Japan such as Hanjiro, Fourth Floor and Niji. Her interest in Mexico came at age seventeen when she discovered a book about Mexico with illustrations at her parents’ home in Iwate. She visited Mexico for the first timein 1999 studying the art of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera as well as that of the Huichol, leading to interest in other aspects of Mexican culture such as the commemorations of Day of the Dead. During her second visit in 2006, she decided to stay for almost two years to have contact with the culture and the art of Mexico as well as to learn Spanish. She states that it was not easy but she met many friends who helped her learn and adapt to life in Mexico. During this time, she exhibited at Garros Galería and the Japanese embassy in Mexico. She returned permanently to Mexico in 2010, as one of a number of Japanese artists who have found opportunities in the country such as Kenta Torii. She has since settled in Colonia Roma, due to its emerging art scene, associated with names such as Ludwig Margules, Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, José Vasconcelos, Carlos Fuentes and Remedios Varo, who the artist names as influences in her work. As a response to the massive earthquake in Japan, Nakashima organized Pray for Japan in July 2011, with Garros Galería and the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana member Celso Zubire at the CONACULTA gallery in Colonia Roma. The exhibition included other Japanese artists such as painters Yuro, Kenta Torii and Satoji Matoba, architect Kosque, photographer Yoshihiro Koitani and sculptor Teruaki Yamaguchi.
Art
Her work is her own interpretation of Surrealism working mostly in watercolors. Her style is somewhat autobiographical with marked Mexican influence with references to Frida Kahlo and Remedios Varo. Sources of inspiration include stories, dreams, movies and images from her travels. They also include children's stories, and works by Japanese writer Kenji Miyazawa. Her first exhibition was a collection of watercolors called Fumikoten 1 at the Piglet Gallery in 2001, followed by Fumikoten 2 at the Hanjiro Gallery, and Fumikoten 3 at Fourth Floor, all in Japan. She exhibited Fumikoten 4 and Fumikoten 5 at the Garros Gallería in 2006, with Fumikoten 4 also presented at the Japanese embassy in Mexico. She presented Fumikoten 6 at the Café Flug in Tokyo, with Fumikoten 7 at Galería Garros in Mexico. In 2009, she had an exhibition called Happy un Birthday+ Fumiko Nakashima at the Niji Gallery with included works made with sugar as well as watercolors. In February 2012, Nakashima created a work called “Doble Vida” or “Double Life” using one of the trolleybuses of Roma, Condesa and Hipódromo, which were donated by the Japanese government to Mexico and since have been used for various art projects. Double Life was created to commemorate the one year anniversary of the Japan earthquake and tsunami, and was dedicated with a ceremony on March 11, 2012. The imagery of Doble Vida consists of a background depicting the deep ocean overlaid with images of flowers and people in homage to what the tsunami took. It was sponsored by the Garros Galería in Mexico City, the Fundación Japón México and the Cuauhtémoc borough.
