Iku Nagai

'Large Abstract', Exhibited at Tokyo Museum Of Fine Arts, Japanese Woman Artist

Circa 1980

Signed, verso, 'Takeshi Nakayoshi' (Japanese-American, born 1952), titled, 'Night Dance' and dated 1999. Born in Osaka, Takeshi Nakayoshi first studied at the University of Oregon before attending the San Francisco Art Institute where he received his BFA (1977) and MFA (1982). Influenced by the work of Matisse and Diebenkorn, Nakayoshi combines this background with his interest in abstract expressionism and his ongoing exploration of the connections between art and music. SELECTED SHOWS: Oakland Museum, 2007 Citibank Building Headquarters, San Francisco, California 2007 Lantham Square Building, Oakland, California 2002 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Artists Gallery, San Francisco Monterey Museum of Art, Monterey CA Museum of Contemporary Art, Costa Rica San Francisco Art Institute Group Alumni Exhibit St. Francisco Hospital Fund Raising Auction, San Francisco Oakland Federal Building Kobe Earthquake Relief, Diamond & Jewelry Center, San Francisco Triton Art Museum, San Jose Synopsis Corporation, San Jose Mission Cultural Center, San Francisco Cadence Corporation, San Jose Kaiser Center, Oakland, CA Syntex Corporation, San Jose SELECTED PERMANENT CORPORATION COLLECTIONS Adobe Corporation, US Headquarters, San Jose Alza Corporation, Mountain View Bank of America, Washington D.C. Birka-White Law Office, San Francisco Burns, Doane, Sweckers & Mathis LLP, Redwood Shores C & C Investment. San Francisco Cadence Corporation, San Jose CB Commercial Real Estate, Sacramento Don Sebastiani & Sons, Sonoma Fairview Capital, San Francisco Hale and Dorr Law Firm, Boston, MA Hyatt Regency Hotel, Irvine, California Indus Corporation, San Francisco Loral Western Development, San Jose Macy's Union Square, San Francisco Marcus I. Millichamp, Oregon, Washington DC., New Jersey MCI Corporation, San Francisco Mills College, Oakland nth Power, San Francisco NEC Corporation, US Headquarters, Santa Clara Nordstrom, Atlanta, GA Pyramid Technology, San Jose Rolm Corporation. San Francisco Saks Fifth Avenue, San Francisco and Texas Scios Inc., San Francisco Sedgwick James, San Francisco SNK (Shin Nippon Kanko) Corporation, San Francisco Ticor Corporation, San Jose REVIEWS/AWARDS San Francisco Chronicle "Don't Miss" designation by Kenneth Baker for last group show at Chroma Art...

Signed lower right, 'Beth Ames Swartz' (American, born 1936) and dated 1967. Primarily working in the idioms of abstraction and semi-abstraction, Beth's paintings and mixed-media works are commonly informed by philosophical and spiritual concepts shared by people of different cultural worldviews, and incorporate both symbols and words in the vocabulary of their visual language. Her art practice has been guided by aesthetic philosophies including Wassily Kandinsky’s Concerning the Spiritual in Art and Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty, and inspired by various religious and philosophical systems including Native American Healing practices, Buddhism, Jewish Mysticism, and Christianity in order to facilitate communication with viewers on both the conscious and unconscious level. Swartz synthesizes these spiritual traditions in her work with the purpose of revealing the commonality between them. Beth was born in New York City and grew up in Manhattan, and by her mid-teens was studying at the Art Students League in New York in the late 1940s. Her education continued at The High School of Music & Art in New York City, and Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where she graduated in 1957 with a Bachelor of Science degree, followed by a Master of Arts degree in 1959 from New York University. Beth Ames Swartz exhibited nationwide including at over seventy solo exhibitions including a solo show at The Jewish Museum in New York. In addition, she participated in three major traveling museum exhibitions and her work is held in the permanent collections of numerous major museums including the National Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian. She received the Governor's Individual Artist Award in 2001 in Arizona, and a retrospective of her work was mounted in 2002 at The Phoenix Art Museum, with a monograph about her work co-published by The Phoenix Art Museum and Hudson Hills Press. Swartz explores systems of knowledge by translating philosophical concepts into aesthetic visual experiences. Fellowships, Awards, Grants and Honors: New York, NY - 2003 Veteran Feminists of America, Medal of Honor Phoenix, AZ - 2001 Recipient, Governor's Arts Award, the highest honor in Arizona for one individual who may be a visual or performing artist or a writer. Snowmass Village, CO - 2000 Anderson Ranch, Artist in Residence Phoenix, AZ - 1994 Founder, Culture Care , an international, non-profit organization sponsoring The Sacred Souls Project, to identify, support and honor individuals who demonstrate positive human societal values New York, NY - 1994 Awarded Flow Fund grant for discretionary philanthropic use for non-personal benefit New York, NY - 1994 Panelist, College Art Association, Art, Earth and Medicine: A Healing Approach New York, NY - 1993 Panelist, The Sacred in the Arts Conference New York, NY - 1992 Speaker, MedArts Conference, Research Study on A Moving Point of Balance Stinson Beach, CA - 1991 Speaker, Symposium, Art as a Healing Force New Harmony, IN - 1990 Keynote Speaker, Art and Healing Conference Phoenix, AZ - 1988 Co-Founder, International Friends of Transformative Art (IFTA), an international, non-profit organization for positive global change Payson, AZ - 1988, '87 Project Coordinator, Rim Institute, Transformative Artist's Conference and Workshop Phoenix, AZ - 1985 Governor's Award, Outstanding Women of Arizona - Women Who Create Sun Valley, ID - 1980 Sun Valley Center for the Arts & Humanities, Artist in Residence, The Awesome Space: The Inner and Outer Landscape Hawaii National Park, HI - 1979 Volcano Art Center, Artist in Residence Phoenix, AZ - 1978, '77 Named Master Teacher by State Department of Public Instruction Phoenix, AZ - 1978, '77 Educational Grant for Inquiry Into Fire, Arizona Commission on Arts and Humanities Selected Bibliography and Reference: Davenport’s Art Reference Guide, 2007/8 Edition, p.2468; Arizona/Women '75 (exhibition catalogue). Tucson, AZ: Tucson Art Museum, 1975; Baigell, Matthew. "Art and Spirit: Kabbalah and Jewish-American Artists." Tikkun vol. 14, no.4, (July-August 1999): 59-61 (illus. in b&w of Shen Qi Series: the Cabalistic Scheme of the Four Worlds #5); Beth Ames Swartz, Inquiry Into Fire (exhibition catalog). Scottsdale, AZ: Scottsdale Center for the Arts, 1978. Introduction by Melinda Wortz; Beth Ames Swartz, 1982-1988: A Moving Point of Balance (exhibition catalog). Scottsdale, AZ: A Moving Point of Balance, Inc., 1988. Introduction by John Perreault; Biennial 1979 (exhibition catalog). Phoenix: Phoenix Art Museum, March 9-April 8, 1979, 35-37, 64 (illus. in color Sedona, #23; illus. in b&w, Torah Scroll, #5); Body and Soul: Contemporary Art and Healing (exhibition catalog). Lincoln, MA: DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, 1994. Introduction by Rachel Rosenfeld Lafo, Nicholas Capasso, and Sara Rehm Roberts; Cembalest, Robin. "The Ecological Art Explosion." ARTnews vol. 90, no. 6 (summer 1991): 96-105; The First Western States Biennial Exhibition (exhibition catalog). Denver: Western States Art Foundation, 1979. Introduction by Joshua C. Taylor (with illus. in color of Torah Scroll #4); Gablik, Suzi. The Reenchantment of Art. Thames and Hudson: New York, 1991, 155-57; Gadon, Elinor W. The Once and Future Goddess: A Symbol for Our Time. New York: Harper and Row, 1989, 245-46; 248; Henderson, Barbara. "Beth Ames Swartz," A Magazine of Fine Arts vol. 2, no. 15 (April 1976): 34-41; Israel Revisited: Beth Ames Swartz (exhibition catalog). Scottsdale, AZ: Beth Ames Swartz, 1981: 40 pp. Introduction by Harry Rand...

Senkichiro Nasaka (1923-2014) WORK Mixed media on paper 53 x 37 cm ( 20 ⁷/₈ x 14 ⁹/₁₆ in) not considering the frame Executed in 1963 Signed and dated in the reverse The present work is one of the few paintings pre-dating Senkichiro Nasaka’s affiliation to the Gutai Group. The particular choice of means and technique, inspired by Senkichiro Nasaka’s mastery of both Japanese and Western painting, conveys the semblance of geological accretions, and clearly adheres to Jiro Yoshihara’s motto: “create what has never been done before” About the Artist: Born in Osaka Prefecture in 1923, in 1942 Senkichiro Nasaka entered the Kyoto City Painting University. where he was a contemporary of Kazuo Shiraga. In 1960s he made a career switch from Japanese traditional painting to Western style oil painting, creating works under the influence of the informel style. In 1965 Nasaka presented his work to the 15th Gutai Art...

This beautiful painting is by Japanese artist, Takefumi Hori. He was born in Tokyo, Japan. He paints beautiful gold leaf paintings. This piece is acrylic, gold leaf and metal leaf ...