MAKI NA KAMURA (born in Osaka, Japan) deals in its work with questions concerning the tradition of painting and its position in the present, operating with a certain irony and always at a distance from the mainstream.
Fasanenstr. 69, Berlin, September 2005
In the autumn of 2005, Na Kamura went to the offices of the Berlin daily newspaper Der Tagesspiegel and purchased a half-page ad. It announced a one-week event in a temporarily repurposed shop space – across the road from the famous Grisebach auction house.
The ad stated: ” IS THIS AN EXHIBITION? DOES MAKI NA KAMURA NOW BELONG TO THE ART WORLD?”
The event ran until the day before the preview of Berlin’s popular art fair; a few curious people turned up, and even the press took note.
This is characteristic of Na Kamura’s position in the world of contemporary art.
YouTube: ” Video Diary One” , 2020
Maki Na Kamura’s painting, especially landscapes, has been included in major overviews including Landscape Painting Now (Thames & Hudson, New York 2019) and Vitamin P2 – New Perspectives in Painting (Phaidon, London 2011).
So does Maki Na Kamura now belong to the art world? The answer is unclear.