Maki Na Kamura: o lala, von was für glänzenden liebhabereien ich träumte!

Oh! What splendid loves I dreamed of! Maki Na Kamura is a Japanese artist living in Germany. In 2012, she was awarded the »Prix Marcel Broodthaers - en peinture« and in 2013, she received the Falkenrot Prize of the Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin. Her painting is influenced by traditional western painting and cites as examples Giorgione and Millet. Christoph Tannert writes that her images are a commitment to the unfinished. There is always the triumph of the wish for romanticism, complete with an escape into labyrinthine structures and despondency. The appeal of this kind of painting is due not least to her use of special painting mediums and idiosyncratic working methods. Rendering the notion of painting undogmatic, it is fluid, airy and suffused with light. Maki Na Kamura simply hints at the essence of things – to great effect. Thus, her paintings become gentle variations on the image as a world-stimulating ferment and imprint of the world. Loosely based on Mishima, the artist paraphrases the element of time in Japanese gardens: Places where one might expect dark memories suddenly offer a cheerful view, allowing us to believe we had already entered the future.