Yue Nakayama works with video, text and installation. Her practice is centered on reinterpreting minor histories, memories and personal anecdotes to stage an absurd intervention that disrupts our social expectations and perceptions. Using narrative as a foundation, her projects encompass diverse topics, with recurring themes including belief systems, power dynamics and issues surrounding cultural, gender and societal identities.

Her work has been exhibited and screened at museums and film festivals including Onion City Film Festival, Illinois, White Columns, New York, Diverse Works, Texas, Contemporary Art Center New Orleans, Visual Art Center UT Austin, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and ICA Philadelphia. She is the recipient of the Carol Crow Memorial Fellowship from the Houston Center of Photography, the Programmer’s Award from the Athens International Film Festival, the Arch and Anne Giles Kimbrough Fund from the Dallas Museum of Art, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. The fellowships and residencies she has attended include Skowhegan, the Core Program, Vermont Studio Center, OX-Bow, and Lighthouse Works. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, the New Yorker, Peripheral Visions and Glasstire.

Areas of Expertise

Lens and time-based media; performance; installation; text

Education

2016 — Master of Fine Arts from University of Pennsylvania

2012 — Bachelor of Fine Arts from Denison University

Courses Recently Taught

This course enables students to explore digital media while engaging in aesthetic and conceptual practices in contemporary art. They come to understand the fundamentals of visual form and to develop technical skills with a variety of camera and computer tools, including still-image and video-editing programs. Personal studio projects cover a variety of subjects, such as the relationship between the arts, popular culture and the liberal arts; the historic role of technology in the arts; and the role of one's cultural and historical context in the creation and interpretation of artwork. Through theory and practice, students enhance their art-criticism skills, allowing for productive group interactions and the defining of personal aesthetic vision. Presentations and demonstrations by the professor are supplemented by student research and response to contemporary artists and issues. At least 10 hours of work per week outside of class is required. This counts toward the introductory course requirement for the major. No prerequisite. Offered every semester.

In this course, students experiment with the creation, manipulation and exhibition of digital film and sound projects. In doing so, they continue a tradition from early filmmaking, in which abstract montage, surreal fantasy and playful narratives reflected innovations in the art, science and politics of the time. Like many current artists and filmmakers, students follow the example of these historical trajectories by using contemporary technologies and concepts for acquisition, post-production and distribution of their work. Demonstrations of a wide range of equipment and software are provided, from low-tech to high-tech. Research of historical/cultural forms offers a context for the assignments. Frequent critiques offer important feedback. This counts toward the intermediate course requirement for the major. Prerequisite: ARTS 106, 107. Offered every other year.

This course is structured to familiarize art students with the complex terrain of the contemporary art world. Students first research and then use as a point of departure various aspects and trends that have been prevalent in the art world over the past 20 years. Projects include researching concept proposals, artist statements and other written materials; oral presentation; model-building; and a finished body of work. Students are responsible for choosing the media and methods for the fabrication of these projects. Students perform readings and research as well as oral/written presentations on various aspects of the aesthetic dialogue that has contributed to the shaping of contemporary art. All bodies of work grow out of the course research and are generated in consultation with the professor and the class as a whole. Creativity and development strategies help guide students in their conceptual process. This counts toward the intermediate course requirement for the major. No prerequisite. Junior standing, Arts major only.