Education / Academic Activity

2024    Internship, Reversible Destiny Foundation, New York, USA

Internship, MELA Foundation, Dream House, New York, USA

2023    Jury, D&AD New Blood Awards, Google Fonts & HMCT, Design and Art Direction, UK

2021–2022    Technical Instructor, Digital Twin Project, Tokyo University of the Arts, Japan

2018–2021    Educational Research Assistant, Art Media Center, Tokyo University of the Arts, Japan

2017    MFA, Department of Design, Tokyo University of the Arts, Japan

2015    BFA, Department of Design, Tokyo University of the Arts, Japan

 

Awards/Honors

2024    The Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission, USA

2023     AD FEST Awards, Finalist (design lotus), ADFEST, Thailand

2022     Artists to Watch, ArtConnect, Germany

　　　 D&AD Awards, Wood Pencil (Typography), Design and Art Direction, UK

　　　 ADC Awards, Silver Cube (Typography), Art Directors Club of New York, USA

ADC Awards, Bronze Cube (Brand/Communication Design), Art Directors Club of New York, USA

ADC Awards, Bronze Cube (Posters / Traditional - Series), Art Directors Club of New York, USA

2021    D&AD Awards, Wood Pencil (Magazine & Newspaper Design), Design and Art Direction, UK

D&AD Awards, Shortlist (Graphic Design), Design and Art Direction, UK

ADC Awards, Merit Honor (Brand/Communication Design), Art Directors Club of New York, USA

The 15th Gunma Biennale for Young Artists, Encouragement Prize, The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, Japan

2018     Tokyo Midtown Award, Runner-up Prize, Tokyo Midtown, Japan

 

Grants

2024    Program of Overseas Study for Upcoming Artists, Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan

2023    Yoshino Gypsum Art Foundation, Japan

2022    Pola Art Foundation Fellowship, Japan

2019    Arts Council Tokyo, Japan

 

Residencies

2024    Residency Unlimited, New York, US

2023    Hangar, Barcelona, Spain

Fase, Barcelona, Spain

2022    Tangent Projects, Barcelona, Spain

ANB Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

 

Solo Exhibitions / Performances

2022     “Over-ride”, online (YouTube)

2021    “The assumption that 1 second = 20cm”, Annual Conference on Academic Computing and Networking, online (Zoom webinar)

2017    Nana Shimomura solo exhibition, Art For Thought, Tokyo, Japan

 

Group Exhibitions / Performances

2023    Paratext #73 by Nana Shimomura, Daniel Cao and Constanza Piña Pardo, Hanger, Barcelona, Spain

“Trazar una línea” with Julián Rico Engel, Hangar, Barcelona, Spain

Hangar Obert, Hangar, Barcelona, Spain

18, theBLANC Gallery by Sotheby’s Institute of Art, New York, USA

Beyond the Paint, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, New York, USA

Open studio, Fase, Barcelona, Spain

2022  Residency show, Tangent Projects, Barcelona, Spain  

Konstellationen, with Shigeru Matsui, Atelier Takiguchi, Tokyo, Japan

2021    The 15th Gunma Biennale for Young Artists, The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, Japan

Roppongi Art Night Spin-Off Project, Roppongi Art Night 2021, online, Japan

Loles live scan streaming with Shigeru Matsui, online (Google Sheets)

Loles live scan streaming with Kenji Seo, AMC Open Lab, online (Google Sheets)

“Bird An-pan and Bootsy Collins”, with Makoto Kawamoto, Ryogoku Monten Hall, Tokyo

2020     Intermedia Art Festival, Huamao Museum of Art Education, Ningbo, China

Seven-hundred Views of Koi Fish, Ritsurin Garden, Kagawa, Japan

“Komorebi”, with Shuntaro Tanikawa, weMORI, Kickstarter

Losles#1, Dohyo, Tokyo, Japan

Losles#2, with Kenji Seo, online (Google Sheets)

2019    Not Necessarily a Device, The University Art Museum, Tokyo University of the Arts, Tokyo, Japan

Kamimiharada Kabuki Stage Bicentennial Festival(with Akira Senju), Gunma, Japan

“Tracing back the flow”, Roppongi Art Night, Tokyo, Japan

Street Museum, Tokyo Midtown, Tokyo, Japan

2018     Tokyo Midtown Award Exhibition, Tokyo Midtown, Tokyo, Japan

2017     Shanghai Art Fair, Shanghai, China

65th Tokyo University of the Arts Graduation Works Exhibitions, the University Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan

 

Publications/ Talk / Public activity

2024.5    Talk session with Ricard Bru, Today is Tápies, Antoni Tápies Foundation, Barcelona, Spain

2020    Text, AMC Journal 4 (2020): pp. 88–107

2019    Moderator, “Hisshoku no mediology”, talk session between Kyuyo Ishikawa and Shigeru Matsui, AMC Open Lab, Tokyo, Japan

Text, AMC Journal 3 (2019): pp. 10–15

Text, AMC Journal 3 (2019): pp. 120–125

 

Interviews

2022 ArtConnect

2020 weMORI Kickstarter 

2019 Pen, no. 468, February 15, 2019, p. 67

 

Collections

Barry Friedman Ltd, New York, USA

Rin Art Association, Gunma, Japan

Private collection

CV

Nana Shimomura is a multidisciplinary artist who deconstructs calligraphy by intertwining her work with contemporary media and informing it through temporal and perceptual analysis. The breadth of her associations with specialists from other domains, such as musicians, dancers, poets, and architects, is reflective of her approach.

Constellations—the inscriptions in the sky, equally visible to all and deeply rooted in ancient human perception—have been an important source of inspiration in her continued exploration for new forms of calligraphic expression that challenge traditional perceptions of the art form through channeling the pure, primal creative impulse of mark-making, or kaku (Japanese: “writing”, “drawing”, and “scratching”)

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