Tomori Nagamoto
永本 冬森
Born
Tomori Nagamoto

December 10, 1973 (1973-12-10) (age 50)
NationalityJapanese
Other namestomolennon
Occupation(s)Visual artist, poet, musician

Tomori Nagamoto (永本 冬森, Nagatomo Tomori, born December 10, 1973 in Hokkaido, Japan) aka tomolennon is a self-taught visual artist, poet, and musician.

Art

Nagamoto's early work was often focused on urban figurative painting. His series of life-sized figurative portraits of dreaming girls entitled "Sleeping Beauty" was exhibited at Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in 2007.[1] His artwork was often created in collaboration with accomplished fashion industry artists, photographers, makeup artists, hairstylists, and fashion designers.[2]

His first photography exhibition "Universe" continued in this fashion with photographic media. In large scale photographs, Nagamoto created portraits of the all encompassing dreams of youth, idealization and melancholy.[3]

In 2008, Nagamoto started a new technique for his compositions; the use of ball-point pen and parchment. This style of art gained him critical success when he was featured on Bravo television in Star Portraits for his portrait of Canadian actor and icon Gordon Pinsent.[4]

Poetry

As a visual artist as well as poet, Nagamoto often creates artwork featuring quotations and Haiku. "Hitch-Haiku" is a series of selected Haiku masters from both the East and West, ancient and modern, include 17th century's first great master Matsuo Bashō and the beat icons Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs.

In 2008, he self-published a poetry/illustration book entitled "Bittersweet Hotel".[5] His theatrical poetry reading performance premiered in Osaka, Japan.[6]

His series "Life Lessons" is a project that aims to bridge the growing gap between the visual arts and literature by creating an artist book featuring hand-drawn portraits of historical icons past and present with their famous quotes. Currently running over 25 episodes (as of May 2012), Life Lessons in the Japanese edition was made into a magazine series which has been continuously published in Bits magazine, a Japanese cultural magazine published in Toronto, since 2009.[7]

Work with musicians

He often works and collaborates with musicians. He co-organized a Shogi (Japanese chess) performance event for girl punk legends Shonen Knife at the Gladstone Hotel, Toronto, in 2003.[8] He directed a promotion video for "T-dog's theme" (2009)[9] and design CD cover "JAfro" (2012)[10] for his jazz pianist friend in New York, Toru Dodo. As art director, he contributed a charity compilation album for victims of Japan earthquake entitled "MapleLeaf RisingSun" (2012)[11] which was produced by Canadian music producer and bassist George Koller and George Rondina of Number 9 Audio Group.

He was presented with the "Best Artist" award from Now in 2002 and Eye Weekly in 2003 as one of the best local visual artists of the year. He also won Artfocus Magazine's Best in Mixed Media Award (2003) and Best in Pastel/Oil Stick Award (2000)

Other work

His work has been featured in design and set design on TV drama series Metropia (OMNI) in 2004.[12]

His early work has been featured on cover of Canadian author Matthew Fox's Cities of Weather (Cormorant Books).[13]

Awards

Date Award
2003Best Visual Artist: EYE magazine reader’s poll
2003Best in Mixed Media Award: Artfocus Magazine 12th Annual Show 2003
2002Best Local Visual Artist: Now magazine reader’s poll
2000Best in Pastel/Oil Stick Award: Artfocus Magazine 9th Annual Show

Selected solo exhibitions

Date Exhibitions
20132013 Sweet Capital, ArtBarrage, Toronto Canada
2012 2012 Life Lessons, Nuit Blanche, Toronto Canada]
20102010 Bittersweet Hotel, Gallery Cero, Osaka Japan
2009Foreign Soil, Ouchi Gallery, New York CityA.
2009Hitch-Haiku revisited, Keep Six Contemporary, Toronto, Canada
2008Hitch-Haiku, Jerome Jenner Gallery, Toronto, Canada Show
2008Sakura, upART Contemporary Art Fair, Gladstone Hotel, Toronto, Canada
2008Sleeping Beauty Awaken, Keep Six Contemporary, Toronto, Canada
2008Universe. G+Galleries, Toronto, Canada
2008AWAKE, Art x Life gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2007Back to Roots, Swansea Town Hall, Toronto, Canada
2007Sleeping Beauty, Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre, Toronto, Canada
2004Smoke Screen, Wagner Rosenbaum Gallery, Toronto, Canada

References

  1. "WebCalendar". Jccc.on.ca. Retrieved August 8, 2012.
  2. "Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre | Fifteen tomolennon Sleeping Beauties revealed in exhibition at Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre". Newswire.ca. Archived from the original on January 15, 2013. Retrieved August 8, 2012.
  3. "Untitled Document". xpia.com. Archived from the original on February 9, 2013. Retrieved February 3, 2022.
  4. "Star Portraits Season 2 | Star Portraits airs Wednesdays and Saturdays on Bravo!". Starportraits.ca. Retrieved August 8, 2012.
  5. "大阪での初個展「Bittersweet Hotel」 – 永本冬森 インタビュー|クリッピン・ジャム". Clippin JAM. Retrieved August 8, 2012.
  6. yaneuranotanuki. "Tomori Nagamoto「BITTERSWEET HOTEL(401,501)」". YouTube. Retrieved August 8, 2012.
  7. "Tomori NagamotoのLife Lessons". bits LOUNGE. Retrieved August 8, 2012.
  8. "Schach, ChessBase: Schach Programme, Fritz, Schach Datenbanken, Schach Training für den PC, Schach-News, Kostenlose Partien und Spieler Datenbank". Chessbase.de. Archived from the original on February 10, 2013. Retrieved August 8, 2012.
  9. "TORU DODO T-Dog's Theme". YouTube. Retrieved August 8, 2012.
  10. "TORU DODO / JAFRO [デジパック仕様] [CD] [アルバム] - CDJournal.com". Artist.cdjournal.com. December 1, 1994. Retrieved August 8, 2012.
  11. "Various Artists | Mapleleaf Risingsun: Songs for Tohoku Japan | CD Baby Music Store". Cdbaby.com. Retrieved August 8, 2012.
  12. "Metropia ::". Omnitv.ca. Retrieved August 8, 2012.
  13. "Cities of Weather at Cormorant Books". Cormorantbooks.com. Archived from the original on October 3, 2011. Retrieved August 8, 2012.

Official website: http://tomolennon.com

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