Press Release
December 29, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                       

Making Spring Again:
Paintings and Sculptures by Kumiko Murakami
January 12 – February 29, 2008

Reception for the artist: January 12, 2008, 6-10pm

Kumiko Murakami creates dioramas and then reproduces them realistically from observation. The dioramas are meditations on Western, Spring-themed commodities, which she calls “objects and scenes slightly unreal from ones in Japan”. Brilliantly executed displays of trompe-l'oeil (“trick the eye”), in oil on canvas, interpret these objects and scenes. By revealing contradictions in illusion Murakami challenges the boundaries of the human sensory-spectrum.

Murakami’s dioramas are still lifes of fake flowers, and drawings of flowers, arranged in and around flowerpots and vases. She applies illusion to the surfaces of the settings, in varying media, such as drawing charcoal-lines to imply breaking through the picture plane. Then, when painting the final diorama
trompe-l'oeil she mimics the charcoal application so literally that it changes the original context of the illusion. Murakami documents reality in a way that is difficult to attach to a style such as realism, hyperrealism or even surrealism. Her interest in reality is in perceiving and recording its contradictions.

Originally from Japan, Kumiko Murakami studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2003 and received her MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2004.

The Spring-themed exhibit is set within the context of Chicago Winter, spanning most of January, February and closing on the last day of February, the 29th. Caro d’Offay Gallery is located at 2204 West North Avenue in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood. Gallery hours are Tuesday-Thursday and Saturday from 1-6 P.M. Hours are also available by appointment.

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