MAHO KUBOTA GALLERY is proud to present Garage Sale, its third exhibition by Yurie Nagashima.

Nagashima’s recent practice is not limited to creating artworks, but also include a wide range of other activities, such as “Countermeasures Against Awkward Discourses : From the Perspective of Third Wave Feminism” at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa in 2021, for which she engaged in dialogue with participating artists to create the exhibition as a guest curator.

For her solo exhibition “School of Care” (Minatomachi Potluck Building, Nagoya) in 2023, she opened the venue to the public as her artist studio during the exhibition period and hosted performances and events in collaboration with other artists and visitors, further expanding the scope of her artistic practice.

At first glance, her recent practice may seem distant from her earlier works, such as her debut series of family nudes from 1993 or her well-known self-portrait series.However, Nagashima’s gaze is consistently focused on the things she cherishes most in her life —herself, her family, her pets, close friends, daily life, and communication with close others. Adapting her practice to both her personal experiences and societal shifts, she continues to explore these themes through flexible and innovative approaches.

In this exhibition, Garage Sale, Nagashima presents new black-and-white prints and sculptures of her beloved cat and dog, alongside reimagined works from her previous series—including about home series, which captures scenes of daily life and household chores, and wild flowers series taken across various locations in the US. These earlier works have been transformed into new pieces through the addition of hand-printed photo collages and pencil drawings by the artist herself.

Nagashima says that she “wanted to work with my hands” for this exhibition.
She printed the new black-and-white photographs by hand in a darkroom. Additionally, her wood sculpture of her pet dog, which was previously exhibited as a work in progress in “School of Care” and “Does the Future Sleep Here?” (2024, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo), will be shown in a more advanced form in this exhibition.

Self-portrait, still life, animals, and landscape – these were not only Nagashima’s essential themes, but also the few motifs that women artists in the 18th century were forced to choose due to social constraints. We hope that this exhibition will provide visitors with an opportunity to see how Nagashima faced these themes and sublimated them into new forms of expression.

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Artist Statement

When I was in junior high, on the weekends I would travel alone from my out-of-Tokyo hometown in Saitama to Harajuku and Shibuya. At school, there was no one who was simpatico, so I listened to groups like The Checkers and Hikaru Genji to make sure I didn’t stick out among my classmates. But those pop idols were amazing. Even though I was only following them to keep up with the conversation, I gradually started to really like them.

At the entrance to Takeshita Street, photos of pop idols—taken by unnamed photographers—were lined up overlooking the street. Unlike the Promide celebrity photos sold at Marubelldo, the images made it clear that they were taken with telephoto lenses. The subjects seemed unaware that they were being photographed. They are in costume, they are facing microphones with their mouths wide open, and they are waving and smiling. I don’t know if it was true, but rumors circulated among us kids that you could get into serious trouble just for buying one of these pictures because the photographers didn’t have official permission to take them.

There’s a difference between a photo of someone you like and a good photo. There’s no relation between a photo of a beautiful person or landscape and a beautiful photo. Each type has its fans, and both types are valued. The artistry of a photo of an unnamed person differs from the artistry of a photo of a pop star. Each of them has a raison d’etre based on differing values. What is commercial and what is art. What makes money and what doesn’t. I’ve always been taught to care about which is more sublime. But this kind of binary discourse is exasperating, and now I’m looking for alternative values suitable for the Age of Aquarius.

I recently started reading Old Mistresses: Women, Art and Ideology, and I wonder why I didn’t read it sooner. That said, there is still much to learn from this book. According to the authors, in eighteenth century Europe there was a predetermined set of subjects, materials, and techniques that were considered suitable for women artists, and therefore women’s paintings were assigned a lower value than men’s paintings. I can see how that happened, and it’s not a surprise as I’ve gotten used to that kind of talk. Nevertheless, there were some women painters who were successful and left behind a lot of work. Some of them painted pictures that were scorned by male critics because “they weren’t feminine.”

Works that don’t sell are a big nuisance. In my case, works that I’ve produced for curated exhibitions almost never become part of the venue’s collection. When they come back to me after the exhibition, I make a point of greeting them with a cheerful, “Welcome home!” If a piece created based on the concept of sustainability has no place to go and it is just going to end up in the oversize trash, it would be better for the planet if it hadn’t been created at all. I was thinking about this and feeling down, when for some reason the Takeshita Street photos popped into my head.

I wonder if my works are asking themselves what is the point of their existence. I always take care of my cat Konyumi and dog Ohana with all my heart so that they never have to think about that. I feel responsible for them, but loving them isn’t a guilt trip. The same goes for my photos. If I wanted to make a new print, I could make one. But it’s like they’re my children. I want to take the time to be with them.

Yurie Nagashima