Accomplice May 2-31, 2008
Yoko Nogami
Statement
The United States of America: the big melting pot of
culture and race, this ideal place of freedom and
peace, the poster child of the United Nations. This is
my home, I think. Ironically, as a working permanent
resident in this country, I have never been made aware
or before experienced the need to be Japanese, more
specifically, a Japanese woman and mother.
My approach to making art, both in the traditional
medium of painting and drawing, as well as in video performance projects, relies heavily on this concept
of disconnect and displacement, a constant search for
what and where home maybe for me. In a transient
world, this sense of displacement is probably not a
rare experience. In a melting pot, everyone is a
foreigner.
Often in my works I use the character Toko, a hybrid
of my daughter and myself. In my works, Toko lives,
explores, questions and reflects the world as I see
it. They are moments and snippets of oddities and
happenings.
Biography
Yoko Nogami was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. She
received her Bachelor of Fine Art degree from
Boston University and received a Master of Fine Art
degree from University of South Florida. She
apprenticed with Mexican American muralist Judith F.
Baca in Los Angeles, assisted in the production of
World Wall and Guadalupe Mural Project in 1989-90.
Though possessing a strong background in
painting, she also incorporates video, installation
and performance as an interdisciplinary artist, driven
by her research in cultural identity displacement and gender issues. Her
works have been shown internationally from Tokyo to
Berlin, Germany and Finland. Most recent endeavor,
HOMEBOUND by Project: HOME collective gained much
interest locally, based on a public art project
focusing on a concept of HOME. She lives in St.
Petersburg, Florida where she is an adjunct professor
at University of South Florida, University of Tampa
and The Art Institute of Tampa.
All I Wanted Was To Be A House, (charcoal & chalk on paper)
I Got Too Big, 2'x4', oil on birch panel
