Nana Shiomi – Girls are Diamonds – Dedicated to All The Runaway Girls

“These works are my homage to Louise Bourgeois’s ‘Home for Runaway Girls”'(1994 / Gouache on sandpaper, 22.2 x 15.9 cm). I have no idea why but I feel like I am a runaway girl since I was young. However, it is not with negative meanings at all. It’s very positive one. I am always seeking my freedom with my full of curiosity and adventurous mind. I am proud of my self as I am still keeping that spirits. These works are my support message to the all runaway girls.

I decided to make Alice of ’Alice in Wonderland’ appear for the cast of characters in these works. Also, I use the upside-down manner of the playing cards for coincidence to the Alice’s story.” NS

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Nana Shiomi makes contemporary woodcut prints. After a period of examining Western art, Shiomi moved on to consider her own Japanese culture within her prints. Shiomi makes reference to masterpieces from the Japanese ukiyo-e tradition in her own work. She often employs a stage within the composition of her images to present ideas. Her printing approach can be described technically as a combination of relief/intaglio and water-based woodcut printmaking. It is rooted in the traditional methods of Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock, printmaking by hand with a Baren, to which she has added her own experimental printing techniques.

Shiomi’s work is held in public collections including: The Victoria & Albert Museum, London; The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Royal College of Art Collection; Pallant House Gallery, Chichester; Wimbledon School of Art Collection; Brunel University, Middlesex; Oriental Museum, Durham; Aberystwyth University, Wales; The Johnson Museum, Cornell University Collection, USA; Tama Art University, Tokyo.

Born in Osaka, Japan in 1956, Shiomi studied oil painting and printmaking at the Tama Art University (BA, MA), Tokyo, and in 1989 – 1991 MA Printmaking at the Royal College of Art, London. She has been living and working in London since 1989.

Rabley Gallery and Nana Shiomi co-published This Side and the Other Side, Nana Shiomi Woodcuts 1996 – 2016, a monograph on the artist’s prints. It is available from the gallery.