Curator's Eye: In Thin Air

Dream Suspended, 2006, Porcelain, Neon Wire, AC Driver, Wood. 108 x 88 x 56 in. Installation at Kittredge Gallery.

Selected by Esther Luttikhuizen, Gallery Director, Kittredge Gallery, University of Puget Sound

I find Yuki Nakamura’s artwork irresistibly elegant. Quietly subtle and impeccably crafted, Nakamura’s conceptually driven work contains a thoughtful balance between Eastern and Western cultures. While maintaining the aesthetic restraint of her traditional Japanese roots, she skillfully incorporates new media and personal content into her visual vocabulary. I am convinced of her strength and maturity as an artist through the way in which Nakamura is able to utilize graphic device, metaphor and a broad array of media to express her ideas in a visually powerful and psychologically meaningful way. — E.L.

The “Dream” project acknowledges the premature death of my brother at the age of 36.  He was a soccer coach and lived his life in Shikoku Island, Japan. For many boys from my hometown, the dream of becoming a professional soccer player is a way they can escape small-town life. Hanging in the gallery are fragile porcelain soccer balls in different stages of deflation. Each ball represents my brother’s dream — and that of the young boys from Shikoku.  — Y.N.

Photo by Richard Nicol. Courtesy of the artist and Howard House.