Alter State:
Kenji Nakayama and Damien Silver
April 13 – May 25, 2024
Opening Reception:
Saturday, April 13, 3-5pm
Drive-by Projects is please to present Alter State, a two-person exhibition including paintings by Kenji Nakayama, mixed media work by Damion Silver, and collaborative works by the two artists.
During the act of making, we are searching for balance, harmony & composition.
We question, why does the feel right? Why it brings up comfort & satisfaction.
Is it because we’ve seen this before in some other space and time?
And over time these visions & experiences sit in our minds, blurring, hiding, distorting, breaking down. Now here by our hand, it becomes present again in front of us in physical form. What guided us here? Conscious or unconscious movements, moments…
Kenji Nakayama and Damion Silver
Kenji Nakayama was born in Tomokomai on the island of Hokkaido, Japan. Trained there as a mechanical engineer, Nakayama made a significant life change in 2004 when he moved to Boston to study traditional sign painting and to dedicate his energy to artmaking. Incorporating many of his sign painting skills (pinstriping, gilding, lettering, and mulit-layered stenciling) in his work, Nakayama moves from abstract representations of Buddhist traditional beliefs to constructions of words and letters stripped of meaning to examine their essential physical forms.
We remember Kenji’s painted window installation Uncertain during Drive-by’s All that Glitter is not Gold exhibition in 2017. Sadly, Nakayama’s insightful piece would still be relevant today.
Damion Silver is a multidisciplinary artist who employs processes including printmaking, assemblage, and sculpture. Silver’s recent work looks to architecture while investigating formal issues such as scale, form and how structures interact with their environment. He is a fan of Brutalism and the International Style. Though his sculptures at Drive-by are small, one can imagine them as public art works sharing space with Marcel Breuer or Louis Kahn.
Damion Sliver loves his ’63 Ford Galaxie and has been riding a skateboard since he can remember. That make sense when you see his work at Drive-by.
Above:
Kenji Nakayama and Damion Silver
Alter State no.1
2024
ink, acrylic on paper
12 x 9″
COLLABORATIONS:
10x4x17″
For more information:
Call or text: 617.835.8255
Email: info@drive-byprojects.com
