Shinichi NAKAZAWA - 中澤 慎 (b. 1957)
etching with gold or silver leaf
Nakazawa says that his philosophy of art is simply to create order and balance within a given space. His idol is the early 17th century artist Sotatsu, known for using traditional arrangements of forms with completely new vitality and cohesion. Like his idol, Nakazawa avoids harsh, rigid lines, places his forms exactly where they should be within his paper size, and always creates pieces that are emotionally compelling. He is primarily a self-taught artist, but his textural pieces, often enhanced with gold and silver leaf, are very sophisticated.
Encounter after encounter, Nakazawa comes across as shy and reserved at first but one soon realizes that he is listening carefully to everything and that he will come to life as soon as small talk is over and art and ideas begin to be discussed. My mother always describes him as being a contemplative thinker who, in another time, would have been perfectly happy sitting for hours in a café on the Left Bank, discussing abstract theories about life and art with his fellow creatives.
Nakazawa is a wizard with computers and, in fact, has become the gallery go-to person for anything related to them. A quick phone call usually resolves any issue that we might have, but he sometimes just shows up at the Tokyo gallery to ensure that we have fixed things to his satisfaction. We always take this opportunity to bring out his latest work and take great pleasure in hearing his thought process, and the ideas that are the genesis for each piece.
Collections:
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Cincinnati Art Museum, USA
Gallery of New South Wales, Australia
Rockefeller Foundation, USA
University of Maryland, USA
Smith College Museum of Art, USA
Peninsula Hotel, Tokyo