Exhibitions

KEN NAKAHASHI is pleased to present Seimei, a two-person show curated by Mariko Matsushita, on view September 23 (Fri.) and through October 23 (Sun.), 2022.

In this exhibition, we shed light on Matsushita’s sense of crisis about these contemporary times. She raises questions about feminism and postcolonialism, in tandem with Amapola Prada’s video works, which will be showcased in Japan for the first time. 

The show will also take place at Decameron, Shinjuku. Amapola’s live performance is scheduled during the second half of the show. 

AMAPOLA PRADA’s work, in which she towers up her own body, has become a definite artistic expression that encompasses agony and yet is lucid.

Her works are characterized by the strained presence of the consistently repressed female body as a trivial part of nature in the city. Her works about family also converge intimacy and tension.

Direction: North, In the world where I live there is always four corners, among others, are direct and striking demonstrations of presence. 

MARIKO MATSUSHITA paints the agony of life, and poses questions about the human soul and the mysterious nature, with her unique sense of color.

Matsushita’s video works and new paintings are positioned to resonate off of the other works, displaying a solid vision that broadens the horizon of her artistic endeavor.

The observation of various expressions of the world should represent an important opportunity to revisit humanity and to redefine Japan. 

We look forward to your visit. 

▼Amapola Prada

Lives in Lima, Peru.

As the daughter of an actor and an actress, Amapola Prada started using her own body as a means of expression in her twenties. Prada never attended art school, but studied the field of Social Psychology at Pontifical Catholic University of Peru.

Prada is interested in investigating the processes through which emotional states, impulses and latent tensions, of an individual within a collective, can be expressed.

Her primary sources of information are the memories of bodies, which host in a symbolic and non-verbal way the sensory and subjective processing of everyday experiences.

[Selected Exhibitions / Performances]

• San Francisco Art Institute (San Francisco, USA)
• Malta Festival (Poznań, Poland)
• Museum of Contemporary Art of Oaxaca (Oaxaca, Mexico)
• Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics
• Whitney Museum of American Art and PERFORMA 11 Biennial (NYC, USA). Co-creation with artist MPA
• Prada received a grant from the Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art 2008-09 to create new works.

[Selected Residences]

• Delfina Foundation (London, UK)
• Plataforma LODO (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
• Instituto Cultural Peruano Norteamericano (Lima, Peru)

▼Mariko Matsushita

Born in Suita City, Osaka Prefecture, Japan, in 1980.

Mariko Matsushita began writing numerous poems as her first form of expression in early childhood, to cope with and comprehend sexual violence.

She decided to pursue art, seeking to explore truth and an “external faucet”.

In 2004, she graduated with a degree in oil painting from the Kyoto City University of Arts. 

While working at a factory, she resumed painting. Her body of work including Margarita 7 won the Grand Prix at the 2nd CAFFA 2016 (Contemporary Art Foundation Artist Award).

The next year, during the residency at the Delfina Foundation in London, she interacted with female artists from India, Peru, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and so forth. She later visited Auschwitz and the Red House in the Philippines among others, where she produced paintings.

In 2020, she publicized In the Honest Word of Love, inspired by Svetlana Alexievich, and in 2021, The Human Voice, including Friday, named after J.M. Coetzee’s book, making an important turning point.  

[Selected Solo Exhibition]

• 2021 The Human Voice, Contemporary Art Foundation, Tokyo
• 2020 In the Honest Word of Love, GINZA TSUTAYA BOOKS GINZA ATRIUM, Tokyo
• 2020 Anökumene: Land exiled as uninhabitable, KEN NAKAHASHI, Tokyo
• 2018 Silent Resistance to Oblivion, KEN NAKAHASHI, Tokyo
• 2016 IDO, matchbaco, Tokyo

【Exhibition Summary】

• Title: Seimei
• Period: September 23 (Fri.)–October 23 (Sun.), 2022
• Participating artists: Amapola Prada, Mariko Matsushita
• Curated by Mariko Matsushita
• Concurrent at Decameron
• In Cooperation with Decameron, Kadist
• Organized by KEN NAKAHASHI

Venue 1: KEN NAKAHASHI

• Shinjuku Bldg., 5th Floor, 3-1-32, Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-0022
• Tel: 03-4405-9552
• Hours: Wednesdays–Fridays 11:00-19:00, Saturdays and Sundays 11:00-17:00
• Closed Mondays and Tuesdays
• Admission Free

Venue 2: Decameron

• 2nd Floor, 1-12-4, Kabukicho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-0021
• Tel: 03-6265-9013
• Hours: Tuesdays–Saturdays 16:00-26:00, Sundays 16:00-24:00, Mondays 17:00-24:00 (*Please call us in advance if you want to visit after 24:00)
• Admission 500 yen

*At Decameron, Amapola’s live performance is scheduled during the second half of the show. The details will be announced on our galleries’ homepages and social media accounts.

*Seimei : “The energy that mobilizes the body, the light that is the core of life, the stinging beauty that resides in even the smallest animal or plant, the soul that is passed on unfailingly from parent to child……”

【Amapola Prada Live Performance】

• Venue: KEN NAKAHASHI (Shinjuku Bldg. 2, 5F, 3-1-32 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-0022)
• How to participate: Advance reservations are required, please apply for the time slot you wish to attend.
• Admission Free
• Date & Time: Wednesday, October 26, 2022, 18:00～, 18:45～, 19:30～
• Reservation form: https://airrsv.net/kennaka/calendar
• Notice: Performance duration is about 20 minutes. Please arrive 10 minutes prior to the start of the session. Please refrain from coming if you have a fever or cold symptoms; Please wearing a mask, measuring the temperature and sterilization at the time of admission. Photography and video recording by visitors are not allowed.
• Filming by the organizers: In order to record videos by the organizers, visitors may be filmed in the venue. Please understand this in advance.