Artist of the Month > 2011 Artists
ARTIST PROFILE
NAME: Toshiko Nishikawa
LOCATION: New York, NY
ORIGIN: Yokohama, Japan
ART: Fine Art
MAIN GENRE: 3-D arts works and installation
TRAINING: Tama Art University in Tokyo, Japan
ARTS AFFILIATIONS: The Vilcek Foundation Gallery
BIO: Toshiko Nishikawa’s mixed media works adeptly capture timelessness. Using acrylic orbs, boxes and canvas, she gives her work a translucent dimensionality. Different layers of material interact with each other and the shadows and shapes in the acrylic boxes change from every vantage point, creating an ephemeral opus of light and color.
The ever-present motion in Nishikawa’s work is quiet and calm, never frenetic. Her work explores unification, inviting viewers to intimately interact with the various languages of perception. In order to truly understand the intricate, sensorial conversation Nishikawa presents, viewers must open up their senses to the movement, emotiveness and evanescence conveyed in the work. The position of light or where people stand will change the vision of her art works dramatically, so the work can not be completed without human imagination. For Plato, the sun means goodness. He says our eye is a peculiar sensing organ that needs a medium – light – to function and recognize things.
Toshiko is a medium, light itself, who brings the sunlight to our minds. She wants to glow from within our minds so that we can see what our eyes may not recognize and invites us to step into the light. Light not only brings clarity, but also bears bio-electronic warmth. Ultimately, Nishikawa’s art reflects the journey humans embark on daily: the journey to understand our introspective, immaterial selves in relationship to the material world.
As an artist, Nishikawa acts as a medium through which life’s metaphysical experiences are crystallized in physical form. Toshiko Nishikawa currently lives and works in Tribeca, New York. Her works have been exhibited internationally.
LATEST WORKS: “Senbazuru” interactive installation
INTERVIEW
Please describe your artistic themes
I would like my art to reach and influence all people around the world to mediate between human beings across whatever that divides us – space, time, race, nationality, gender and also give people the opportunity to use their imagination to grow out of their bodies and experience the richness of our souls.
Please describe your creative process
I am just a medium, not a scientist nor a philosopher, so I just wait for that moment in time when energy comes and bears the things that should be born.
What are your artistic goals?
I try not to judge my work using my criteria. I create my work, wondering how my descendants in the next 3000 years will judge it. Their imagination reflected in my art works might be different from what we can imagine today.
What are your views on the industry?
I wish for all the people to have an opportunity to be free from the object world.
What advice could you give to emerging artists?
Never give up and always be an artist.
WEBSITE: vilcek.org/events/toshiko-nishikawa-senbazuru/
