Ninko Ouzou
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Prayer-Rebirth
Acrylic and oil pastel on wood
51" x 38"
The largest scale painting by Ninko Ouzou, portraiting Museme praying for purity and renewal for herself and the world she is within. |
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"Ninko Ouzou goes after the ultimate in cute. She sets sights on a kinder, gentler kitsch, and turns it inside out. Ouzou's distilled palette and understated environments only intensify the gaze of her subjects, making them appear oddly forceful and controlling, while the heavily worked, painted and drawn surfaces compel onlookers to take a closer look". - D. Dominick Lombardi |
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A Wish
Acrylic and oil pastel on wood
21" x 16 1/2" |
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Ninko Ouzou gives little facial expressions to her main character Musume, apparently based on the artist herself, leaving it up to the viewers what to project onto her; a sense of curiosity, desire, pain, anguish, fear, hopelessness and desperation.
As with a real person, Musume has grown and changed her apperance over the years. In early Musume paintings, one of her eyes is tearful and larger as if it has been smacked. The artist says that eyes reflect the person's state of mind. One eye enlarged for vanity is to be seen by others and another small and fearful eye is to see her inner self.
The character's strong emotional nature has developed into a series of Prayer paintings: Praying for peace, love, warm heart, purity, etc. Contrary to her other Musume paintings, Prayer offers a clam, serene feelings. |
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A Prayer-Peace
Acrylic and oil pastel on wood
39 1/2" x 31 1/2" |
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Musume and Kozou in Red
Mixed media
19 1/2" x 19" x 5" |
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The artist says that the Musume exists in a subtle dark space between her introspective world and reality. Musume with Kozou in Red may best represent this artist's thoughts. In this stunning red box sculpture, a Musume at pray is placed in the center of the box, which is filled with her child spirit heads called, Kozou. The emotion is so strong that spirits are overflowing out of the box forming an external universe. |
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Sei and Dou
Acrylic and oil pastel on wood
39 1/2" x 31 1/2" ea. |
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Ninko Ouzou's desire to express such strong emotional contrast has lead her to panorama diptych paintings with contradicting colors and themes. Her inspirational diptych paintings serve as an important vehicle in her expression. |
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On All Fours-Facing
Acrylic and oil pastel on wood
21" x 16 1/2" |
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The artist's attempts to face and get down to human nature have resulted in a series of paintings depicting Musume on all fours. A female nude filled with a sense of strong determination reminds us of Frida Karlo. Yet, challenging compositions and intricate body contours show Ouzou's continuing development. |
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Give Me Love
Acrylic and oil pastel on wood
13" x 9 1/2" |
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A derivative from her Musume paintings since early 2005 is a Love & Sex series. In this series, Ninko Ouzou expresses Musume experiencing various kinds of love and emotion such as; selfishness, emptiness, lonliness, wanting for more, expections, fantasy, etc. |
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Over the Top, Under the Rug
A group show cutated by D. Dominick Lombardi at Shore Institute of Contemporary Art (SICA), Long Beach, NJ
Sep 2 - Oct 7, 2005
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Birth (Detail)
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EAST VS. WEST
A group show at The Roger Smith Lab Gallery
Yoshiaki Asai, Ninko Ouzou, Hisao Sakai, Savako AND Blaine Fontana, Charles Glaubitz,
Joshua Krause, Tim McCormick and Jason Sherry; curated by D. Dominick Lombardi; and presented in association with Lunarbase Gallery
Sep 8 - 17, 2005 |
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In the Back Room
Recent works by Yoshiaki Asai, Chaval, Patrick Dorian, Ninko Ouzou, Hisao Sakai and Savako.
May 13 - Jun 18, 2005 |
In Flower (Detail)
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Funkadelicide
A group show cutated by D. Dominick Lombardi at Broadway Gallery, NYC
May 4-21, 2005
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Nova Young Art Fair, West Loop, Chicago
A group show by Yoshiaki Asai, Chaval, Patrick Dorian, D. Dominick Lombardi, Ninko Ouzou, Hisao Sakai and Savako
Apr 28 - May 1, 2005 |
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Link the World
A group show by Yoshiaki Asai, Chaval, D. Dominick Lombardi, Ninko Ouzou, Hisao Sakai and Savako
Feb 28 - Mar 14, 2005 |
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Art Miami 2005, Miami Beach Convention Center
A group show by Yoshiaki Asai, Chaval, D. Dominick Lombardi, Ninko Ouzou, Hisao Sakai and Savako
Jan 6 - 10, 2005 |
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Oct 8 - 24 , 2004
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Sei & Dou (Still and In Motion) |
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Characterism/Mirai_Award
Mirai Award Winners Show
Sep 19 - Oct 13, 2003 |
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