Yume No Kuni: Dream Country

February 7, 2013

Tintagel, Cornwall, U.K., Dec. 24, 1984. Silver-gelatin print from retouched negative. Photo courtesy of Arthur NishimuraNickle Galleries opens Yume No Kuni: Dream Country, an exhibition of photographer Arthur Nishimura, in collaboration with the official launch of Exposure 2013: Calgary Banff Canmore Photography Festival. A reception to celebrate the opening will be held on Thursday, Feb. 7 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. The exhibition will remain open until April 6.

Yume No Kuni: Dream Country, a retrospective exhibition, will display stunning representations from each of Nishimura’s major bodies of work over the last four decades. More than 130 photographs exemplifying his consummate skill and masterful execution will be on view.

Nishimura’s ways of working behind the lens will also be considered, along with their influences — his kinship with his prairie home, his Buddhist learning, and his literary sense of thinking through what is seen. Nishimura’s world of photography is as technically perfect as it is conceptually deep and textured. Profoundly influenced by literature, his photographic series are extended contemplations of personal stories, of growth and development, and of loss and longing.

“There is a constant presence of dualities in the photographs — illusion and perception, vertical and horizontal, self and the world — both for the artist and for viewers to make sense of the world through them,” says Christine Sowiak, exhibition curator.

Nishimura joined the Department of Art in 1971, serving as department head from 2004 to 2009 before retiring in 2010.