Native: Manchester

Native: Manchester is a touring exhibition that has thus far, taken in Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Kyoto, Japan. The artists selected are from United States of America, Japan, Australia, and UK, forming a cross collaboration between PAPER, Durden & Ray, Gallery Lara Tokyo, and Art Office Ozasa.  Native explores the concept of nationhood. In these troubled times, each artist was simply asked, “Where are you from?” and asked to work in response. This exhibition is the culmination of these thoughts.

A few years ago, whilst in Copenhagen, I visited the Statens Museum and saw a work by the Danish collective, Superflex, FOREIGNERS PLEASE DON'T LEAVE US ALONE WITH THE DANES! (2002). This statement could not be more apt at this time. In the British context of Brexit, this fear of a nation rife with xenophobia fills me with utter terror. It also colours my sense of what it means to be a native of a particular geographic location. It becomes a heartfelt cry: FOREIGNERS PLEASE DON'T LEAVE US ALONE WITH THE BRITS!

For EC, a London based artist, born and raised in the UK of Italian parents and having attached little importance to being of one single nationality, Brexit induced a kind of claustrophobic panic. Nationalism was rearing its head. The fact that EC’s work handles a crashing of elements that are complexly interpenetrating, occupying cusps or on the verge of collapse seems appropriate in this context. The artist often introduces elements into this work that could suggest something readable by breaking down painted text.

California resident, David Leapman, who won the John Moores Painting Prize in 1995, references his London inspired imagined mountains and those that surround the city of Riverside, California. Juxtaposed to this landscape are various idiosyncratic images originating from his former home city and sustained by his London sensibility. Based in LA and Japan, Kio Griffith’s work posits not simply reflections of his pan-nationality but also of pan-sensory experience. As is a visual/sound artist, curator, he creates a diverse trajectory of projects between the U.S. and Japan. By mining historical sociolinguistic references, he amplifies awareness of temporal events past, present and future.

Before setting off across the Pacific, four artists joined the touring exhibit, three from Los Angeles and one from San Jose. Mark Dutcher’s paintings are ongoing dialogues with tenets of abstract painting and contemporary allegories; Nick Brown’s watercolours are naturalistic vanitas reflecting our temporal state of impermanence; Esmeralda Montes’  paintings explore refurbished contemporary mythologies; and Chris Sicat’s obsessive and meticulous graphite work draws out the supernatural energy of fallen trees.
The galleries in Japan were selected by their presence in the east; the nation’s capital, Tokyo; and west; the old capital from medieval Japan, Kyoto. Gallery Lara Tokyo and Art Office Ozasa, respectively, have been active in showing both the emerging and the underrepresented artists from a wide bandwidth of national and international artists. Chihiro Minato is a contemporary photographer, socio-anthroplogist, and was the director of the 2016 Aichi Triennale; Nobuki Mizumoto carefully draws and carves intricately fine lines to reveal unaware beauty; Hidekazu Tanaka constructs paintings as action-objects; Yang02 +  Kenta Ishige’s collaborative drawing works rely on the mechanism of their invented robotics; and Miyuki Yokomizo’s existential 'multiple-simplicity' evokes the sense of working in the invisible mind.

Installation Views
The Artwork

David Leapman
4-1-16, 8-9-16
watercolor,gold and silver ink on white paper,
19.5 x 28.6cm
2016

DavidLeapman
10.4.16
watercolor, gold and silver ink on black paper,
19 x 28cm
2016

David Leapman
1.2.16 
gold ink on black paper,
19 x 28cm
2016

James Rielly,
Some have no home
watercolour on paper
38x29cm
2016

James Rielly,
no home for some
watercolour on paper
38x29cm
2016

James Rielly,
Learning to hide
watercolour on paper
38x29cm
2016

Tracey Eastham
The Manor House
Cut out Gold Paper,
30 x 38cm (33 x 41cm framed),
2016

Tracey Eastham
The Island They Left Behind
Cut out Gold Paper,
30 x 38cm (33 x 41cm framed),
2016

David Hancock
3:29
Watercolour on Paper,
30 x 21cm
2018

EC 
Inferire
oil,household paints, acrylic & collage, canvas on board,
13x18 cm
2014

EC
Phrased
oil,acrylic & collage on canvas,
5x10 cm
2014

EC
Intervallo
oil, household paints, acrylic & collage, canvas on board,
13x18 cm
2014

EC
Phrased
oil,acrylic & collage on canvas,
5x10 cm
2014

Nick Brown
The Ice Door
Watercolour on Paper with Mirrored Card
42 x 30cm
2016

Nick Brown
Ancestors
Watercolour with crushed Sea Shells on Paper with Mirrored Card
42 x 30cm
2016

Tom Dunn
Mesopotamia Drawing #12
charcoal on paper
40 x 40cm
2016

Tom Dunn
Mesopotamia Drawing #13
charcoal on paper
40 x 40cm
2016

Esmeralda Montes
SheGod
Acrylic and Oil on Paper
35 x 25cm
2016

Esmeralda Montes
Yesterday's Follies 
Acrylic and Oil on Paper
35 x 25cm
2016

Esmeralda Montes
Bound Siren
Acrylic and Oil on Paper
35 x 25cm
2016

Chihiro Minato
Hole Earth Catalog
Digital print on paper
image size 26 x 39 cm. sheet size 32 x 43 cm
2015

Nobuki Mizumoto
Pandas
Graphite on Paper Mounted on Board
27 x 41cm
2016

Chris Sicat
Redwood Bark
Graphite on Paper
30 x 42cm
2014

Mark Dutcher
Cure (Study #1)
Oil on Paper
41 x 36cm
2016

Mark Dutcher
Cure (Study #2)
Oil on Paper
41 x 36cm
2016

Yang02 + Kenta Ishige
Serious People Smell a Bit Of Decaying Flesh #1
32 x 41 cm
2016

Norio Taniguchi
Mermaid & Monkey Hand
Etching on Japanese Paper
39 x 27cm
2018

Kio Griffith
Origami painting series 8 
Natural mineral pigments on paper
37 x 25cm
2018

Hidekazu Tanaka
Quack L
Oil on Paper mounted on board
2018

Miyuki Yokomizo
line #1
Oil on Paper
2018

Installation Views