Organizing Chaos with Polka Dots – Healing and Challenges with ink by nomoco

Written by ART Driven Tokyo

The unique texture and transparency of ink and the skillful use of color will take you in

Organising Chaos, a solo exhibition by nomoco, known for the transparency and skillful use of color that ink can provide, was held from October 21 to November 11, 2023, and was well received. The gallery was YUKIKOMIZUTANI at TERRADA ART COMPLEX II in Tennozu, Tokyo, and the gallery was filled with vibrant colors and ink textures as if taken inside the artist, and the show provided a soothing experience for visitors.

日本語記事はこちら。

Discovery from chance, a trance-like feeling of diving into the painting

What beautiful colors of polka dots and adorable round shapes!　The gradation of the polka dots and the ink blotches are both accidental and controlled.

Within this exhibition the ‘chaos’ inside nomoco herself becomes the focus. The feeling of trying to organise a cramped and confused state, the feeling of trying to neatly arrange the mess inside one’s head, the feeling of trying to control the uncontrollable. The mistakes and discoveries birthed by chance, diving into the picture in a trance-like state, and the therapeutic colours and shapes that emerge. All these sensations are incorporated into her work via the movement of ink.

Born in Fukuoka, Japan, nomoco received an MA from Central Saint Martins College of Art, and soon after began her career as an illustrator. She has presented her work worldwide at numerous solo and group exhibitions in cities such as London, Milan, Mexico City, and New York. She creates work rooted in the inspiration she receives from sounds and nature, and the organic irregular movement of ink.

Through developing an element of the work she has presented up until now as an illustrator, the exhibition presented a collection of artwork that offers a glimpse into a new side of the artist. The following four works are from the sketchbook.

Stillness and movement, lingering. Stories that continue from the sketchbook

For nomoco, there is no boundary between illustration and art. The exhibition was organized as if it were a story that continued from her past sketchbooks. The “underlying theme” of the sketchbooks was the life of a fleeting cicada, which was compared to a woman’s story.

Yukiko Mizutani of YUKIKOMIZUTANI, the venue for the exhibition, planned this exhibition because nomoco’s work utilizes ink blotting, which is similar to the technique of traditional Japanese-style painting, and has an excellent balance of foreign and Japanese aesthetic sensibilities. Both the woman’s face and hair in the sketchbook are not drawn too tightly, but rather lingering. What is most important is the texture of the ink.

nomoco: Dots like atoms. I arrived at an expression as if the flow had stopped a little. Someone in the painting communicates outwardly

Stillness and movement. The contrast of almost the same number of colors gives a sense of expansiveness and healing.

ART Driven Tokyo asked nomoco about her solo exhibition, which she described as “a challenge,” and obtained her comments.

ART Driven Tokyo: Please tell us about the process of expressing art with polka dots and what kind of discoveries you made.

nomoco: My works are usually relatively small in size, so I often show them at close range, and I think it was easy to express the individual differences of the circles and the organic expression of the ink that exists in each circle.

However, one of the challenges was how to use the large size of the painting in a large space like this one, because each individuality of the small circles would disappear in the space. As a result, I painted each circle as if it were an atom.

I came up with a slightly different way of expressing the circles from a different perspective: a circle with individual differences is merely a part of one surface when seen from a distance, or a single surface has its own unique individuals when seen up close.

I usually work only with ink and paper, and the fluidity and drying speed of ink on paper responds very delicately to the condition of the paper. In this exhibition, the paper was stretched over a panel with water in order to draw a large size, which seems to have slightly altered the fibers of the paper, creating an unfriendly blotchiness and movement in the ink as well. It was frustrating at first, but it was also interesting, and in controlling it, I arrived at a different kind of expression, one in which the flow of the paper seemed to stop a little.

ART Driven Tokyo: In your sketchbooks and production videos, you write English letters (e.g., “pop!”) upside down. 　

nomoco: I think I started drawing letters upside down when I was a student, drawing reversed letters for monotype prints or for ink workshops so that the person across from me could read the letters.

I became interested in the feeling that the letters produced there were someone living inside the picture conveying the words to the outside world, and after continuing to do this many times, I now draw the letters upside down as normal.

Editor’s Note

This exhibition was realized by nomoco, which continues to take on new challenges, and YUKIKOMIZUTANI, which always seeks the new. ADT was empowered by the careful work of both.

nomoco

Born in Fukuoka, Japan.

Completed Master’s Program of Central Saint Martins, Communication Design in 2005. Graduated from London College of Communication, Department of Graphic and Media Design in 2003. Graduated from Osaka University of Arts, Department of Design in 1999.

Exhibitions
2020 “HangaLabo Ebis Printmaking Exhibition 2020”, Hiroshige Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2019 “HOME”, Flaco Studio Gallery, La Coruña, Spain
2019 “Sound of Waves : The Art of Collaboration”, Park Hotel Tokyo, Japan
2019 “Pocko Park : NOWHERE” – collaboration of ink and photography by nomoco & Martin Holtkamp, Park Hotel Tokyo Corridor Gallery, Japan
2018 “HangaLabo Ebis Printmaking Exhibition 2018”, Hiroshige Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2017 “FLAG FOR THE EARTH” in collaboration with PostFossil, Old Botanical Gardens, Zürich, Switzerland
2016 “TACTILITY : Comtenporary Fashion Illustration”, Pocko gallery, London, UK
2016 Media Arts Lab, Los Angels, USA
2016 “A Chance Tone of Colour”, Pocko Gallery, London, UK
2013 “Gentleman Practice with Buddy Wakefield, Factoryroad Gallery, Leichestershire, UK
2012 “Small Picture Story”, Vertigo Galeria, Mexico City, Mexico
2010 “Museum Of Small Things”, Selfridges, London, UK
2010 “WORDPLAY”, The New York Times Gallery, New York, USA
2009 “Metropolis”, Kemistry Gallary, London, UK
2009 (RED) exhibition, Gap Pop Up Gallery, New York, USA
2009 “Pocko Shoko”, Magma, London, UK
2008 “Let’s Make Out”, Pocko Gallery, Milan, Italy
2007 “Detour Exhibition”,The Art Directors Club, New York, USA
2005 Asylam Gallery, Singapore

Clients
Alice and Olivia, Apple, Audi, Casa Brutus, eni, Harper Collins, Hodder & Stoughton, Kodansha, Little Tiger Books, Mall at Milenia, Marc Jacobs, Moschino,
New York Times, Nestlé, Nike, Penguin Books, NSPCC, Portbello Books, Puffin Books, Random House, Royal Shakespeare Company, Science Museum (uk),
Simon & Schuster, the ABRSM, The Telegraph, The Guardian, Ulpius-ház, Volvo, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, White’s books, etc.

Books
2021 The World Awaits, story by Tomos Roberts, Farshore Books, UK
2021 Sono fatto così, story by Marta Benoffi, Aquiluna, Italy
2021 Brillantina, story by Marta Benoffi, Aquiluna, Italy
2021 たいせつな気づき – 新型コロナウイルスをのりこえた未来の物語、トモス・ロバーツ 著、大嶋野々花 訳、創元社, Japan
2020 The Great Realisation, poem by Tomos Roberts, Egmont, UK / Harper Collins AU, Australia / Harper Kids, USA
2019 C’era una volta una Goccia – La storia dell’acqua, Edizioni Lapis, Italy
2018 Once Upon a Raindrop, poem by James Carter, Caterpillar Books / Little Tiger Books, UK
2016 Nomoco’s Sketchbook, Pocko, UK

Click here for a list of works. Artist Website: https://kazukonomoto.com/

YUKIKOMIZUTANI

Founded in 2020, a fast-growing, contemporary art gallery led by Yukiko Mizutani. Mizutani combines her international sensibility with her long experience in authentic Japanese painting and other forms of art. Her selection, like the personality of the gallery, is a balance of global and Japanese aesthetics, and is distinguished by the care with which it is handcrafted.

Artists represented include Motoi Yamamoto, Nana Soeda, Chie Tsubomoto, Yabiku Enrique Yudi, Seiji Matsumoto, Tadanori Yokoo, Tomohiro Inaba, and Masayoshi Nojo.

LOCATION

• TERRADA ART COMPLEX II 1F 1-32-8 Higashi-Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, 140 0002 JAPAN
• TEL: +81.3.6810.3885
• FAX: +81.3.6810.3884
• Open Hours
  Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat: 12:00 – 18:00
• Closed on Sundays and Mondays
• Website: https://yukikomizutani.com/

ACCESS

• Tokyo Waterfront Area Rapid Transit Rinkai Line “Tennozu Isle Station”
  8 minutes walk from Exit B
• Keikyu Line “Shimbamba Station”
  8 minutes walk from North Exit