MAMORU NIMURA “UNKNOWN TREASURES – Abstract interpretations of forms around us”

Lawn Landscapes of Central Park #1, 30” x 36”, Acrylic on canvas with Sand & Gesso ground
Slowing Down in Central Park #1, 30” x 40.6”, Acrylic on canvas with Sand & Gesso ground
The Blooming of Central Park #1, 30” x 36”, Acrylic on canvas with Sand & Gesso ground

Mamoru Nimora is an 88-year-old self-taught emerging artist. In 1965, Mamoru emigrated from Kyushu, Japan, to the United States at the age of 31. This one-person show, held at The Nippon Gallery on 57th Street in New York City, will reveal his work to the public for the first time.

To many, an “88-year-old emerging artist” might seem surprising; how could one just now, at this age, start painting? What appears to be an interest in painting at a late age is a manifestation of a decades-long pursuit. With no time in his younger life to pursue painting, he was obliged to set aside his passion for painting but not his excitement to learn. Nimura’s artistic development owes little to formal lessons, instead of to influences he found in his new home in New York City. Its museums were his lessons. While awed by the paintings of Dutch and Spanish Baroque masters, especially Rembrandt, Johannes Vermeer, and Diego Velázquez, housed in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Instead, he was drawn to the works of contemporary painters found in The Museum of Modern Art, drawing inspiration from Arshile Gorky, Milton Avery, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso.

Most importantly, though, New York gave him the gift of Central Park; its diverse natural beauty and the energy of its people are the inspiration to which he dedicates his painting. Inspired by his many hours of observation, sitting, strolling, experiencing the beauty, and smelling the aroma of the new blooms year after year, these are subjects he depicts in his paintings; he even began titling his paintings after these experiences he had in Central Park. He has rejected any commitment to transcribing nature, responding instead to formalist imperatives, including flat, decorative surfaces, subtle tonal harmonies, and allusive, rather than literal, subjects. Derived from nature, but with no attempt to portray actual plants or animals as we know them, he offers surrealistic abstract interpretations of forms all around us.

Color is a powerful influence for Mr. Nimura in his artistic pursuit. Understanding the relationship between colors and how we perceive them on canvas has been the exploration he has taken over these years. Immersing himself in the study of color, testing its vibrations and intonations, searching for the components to make the perfect warm black, a recurring element in many of his paintings, until he arrived upon his quiet, calming, harmonious palette. Through the evolution of his work, he has crafted a distinctive style from diverse sources, which brought him to create the surrealistic abstract images that are part of this exhibition.

Working in acrylics on canvas, often with a gesso and sand ground, he is a prolific painter, generating hundreds of canvasses over the years, some of which make up the various series of paintings within this exhibition. At this stage of his life and creative journey, Mr. Nimura is genuinely grateful for his work to be viewed and appreciated for the light-hearted optimism they exude.