onlyinpomona.org - about the artist

As far back as she can recall, Yuko Nagai’s top priority in life has been to feed her only what her heart desires (and see what happens).

Growing up in suburban Tokyo on an irregular diet of 70’s B-rated films (the kind that leaves you with a bad taste) and neighborhood expeditions in back alleys and hippy joints, she had learned to take pleasure in flipping rocks and search for creepies and spookies crawling underneath.

As a child she spent long hours sitting by her mother who was a professional tailor, looking on and soaking up her skillful craft. She also was inspired by her father’s interest in photography, which led her to take photography course at an art school in Tokyo, following high school graduation. However, in pursuit of life vivid and lively, she opted to drop out shortly after and dove into such life, hands free.

While making a fully-intentional detour in Tokyo and Los Angeles, she had painted murals and people’s faces, worked for a fashion designer and a costume maker, facilitated art groups, organized events, carried on (and off) as a minuscule clothing designer, and let the visions and skills accumulate in her cerebral storage files.

She had taken practical, basic (flat) pattern-making course (short) at Tokyo’s somewhat-prestigious Bunka Fashion Academy. Fabric dyeing, one of her current passion, is a self-taught skill, with kind assistance from Tokyo’s superb dye-material specialty store “Seiwa”. As for photography, she is picking up where she had left off 25 years ago, back on learning the fundamentals, this time on her own.

She now resides in a place called Kitaibaragi, north-east Japan facing Pacific, typically deserted small town with assets of empty beaches and a sense of overall vacancy, and with having Tagore visit in 1916 as a single tale-to-tell in its history.

Yuko Nagai, working hard.

To reach Yuko Nagai, write to:
info@onlyinpomona.org