Detail: MIYAKO YOSHINAGA proudly presents Manika Nagare‘s recent abstract color paintings. Born in 1975, the Tokyo-based artist took a different path from her sculptor father Masayuki Nagare (1923-2018) by choosing painting as her media.

Inspired by awe-inducing natural phenomena and nature's boundless vistas, Nagare’s work delves into human emotions surrounding life events, such as the death of family members and close friends. In her recent work, she explores the notion of the border between this life and the afterlife which has long been entertained in Japanese literature, theatre, film, and visual art. The vision of intense light and colors she felt during the final days of her loved ones motivated Nagare to create these paintings.

Instead of mixing colors on a palette, Nagare applies multiple layers of simple colors, conveying shifting expressions reflecting differences in light and perspective. Brushstrokes as light as a feather touching skin, lines tracing abstract mountain ridges and the contours of plants, and smooth rhythms like flowing water all coexist in her work organically as in nature itself.