Ripples 4, 2012

Kumiko Fujinami was born in Osaka, Japan in 1943 and in 2009 completed her diploma from Vancouver Island School of Art. Previous to her visual arts training, Fujinami published two books, a collection of poetry, short stories and wrote essays for local magazines and newspapers in Japan. She taught and was an administrator at Osaka Literature School until 1985. Fujinami has focused on line work in painting and drawing, a natural extension of her background and being. Although the presentation of her work appears automatist, her procedure is very labour intensive often taking up to six weeks to complete one work. Her composition, colour choices, medium and sense of depth are derived from her cultural background and draw on her former practice of hand writing letters and characters. Kostuik Gallery is pleased to have discovered and now exclusively represent both her collage paper works and gel pen drawings, which have been acquired profusely since her debut show in 2009. Anticipation is her response to the tragic tsunami in Japan, and opened June 2011.