Installing a new display in our Japan galleries with Nishiki Sugawara-Beda and the DMA team!
Nishiki Sugawara-Beda is a Japanese-American artist based locally in Dallas, Texas. Her works draw upon her Japanese heritage, and often employ traditional Japanese mediums, including custom-made sumi ink. Her KuroKuroShiro (black-black-white) series explores the medium of sumi ink, reflecting on the mark-making of classical Japanese ink painting and calligraphy, while also incorporating modern approaches to figure and ground as well as the gestural brushstroke.
“Materially and conceptually, these works are a reflection on the kakejiku (hanging scroll) format. I understand the traditional rules of kakejiku ink paintings, and from there I borrow or adapt those traditions. While the format is that of a hanging scroll, I also change aspects of that format, such as the length of the top and bottom fabric, while maintaining the proportions. That, and the paintings themselves also borrow elements, or traditions, from Western abstraction. Finally, there is the addition of the red hanging fortunes. These accessories are my way of completing the works and looking towards the future.”
“As an artist, you must think about how your work will be interpreted over time. Your work lives beyond yourself, and you must think about those future responsibilities.”
See Sugawara-Beda’s work on view now in our Asian art galleries on Level 3!
Images: Nishiki Sugawara-Beda, KuroKuroShiro Kami – Four Seasons, 2021. Sumi ink on paper mounted to fabric scroll. Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas Art Fair Foundation Acquisition Fund, 2023.49.1-4.A-B
