Post No Bills

Hidenori Ishii Fumi Nagasaka Jeremy Yuto Nakamura Junko Yoda

NowHere is pleased to present Post No Bills, a group exhibition showcasing the works of the artists who have roots in Japan and are based in New York City.

This exhibition draws its inspiration from the omnipresent "Post No Bills" graphic. Peer beyond the green construction wall on which the tag sits through the clear plastic window, and you'll see —a different side of the city: An almost subterranean space, towering concrete pillars, and exposed piping, a promise of New York's next phase.

Construction sites covered in posters and layered with creative expression have come to symbolize the city's relentless pace and ceaseless energy, where the city's constant state of evolution is on display.

Four talented artists - Hidenori Ishii, Fumi Nagasaka, Jeremy Yuto Nakamura and Junko Yoda - will explore the influence of the Post No Bills sign, each offering a unique perspective on this ubiquitous but overlooked emblem of New York.

Born in Yonezawa, Japan, resides and works in LIC, New York. Ishii holds a BFA from George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, and an MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD. Ishii is a visual artist who explores the social and environmental landscape through a fusion of art historical connections, personal narratives, and socio-political subject matter. His work traverses painting, screen-printing, and installation. His solo exhibitions include venues like Erin Cluley Gallery in Dallas, TX, and C. Grimaldis Gallery in Baltimore, MD. Ishii's work has been featured in group exhibitions worldwide, including at the Wichita Falls Museum of Art in TX and Art in Embassies in Ankara, Turkey. He has received awards such as the 2022 New Work Grant from the Queens Council on the Arts and was previously a Keyholder Resident at the LES Printshop in New York City. Ishii's work is part of collections such as the Fidelity Investments Corporate Art Collection and the Microsoft Art Collection.

Born in Nagoya, Japan, Fumi Nagasaka moved to New York in 2002 to explore North American culture. In 2003 she began working as a freelance photographer for the Japanese cult magazine Street and later travelled around Europe and US shooting documentary photographs. Her work has been exhibited widely across Europe and Japan and was included in the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2021 and 2023 Prize exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, London, an open submission winner at Belfast Photo Festival in 2019 and the Photo Chronicles Portrait Photography Award in 2019. She exhibited her solo exhibition In America at Nowhere in April 2023 and published her 4th book Dora, Yerkwood, Walker County, Alabama with GOST Books in November 2023.

Jeremy Yuto Nakamura synthesizes the delineation of glossy and gritty existences through deft handling of figurative painting and select color choices. From moments of serenity in underrealized urban development to somber reconciliations with missing persons listings, New York’s ephemeral qualities fill up the setting in the artist’s retelling. In Nakamura’s latest piece, the temporary door on the construction site is literally a portal to a variegated reality. Nakamura is a visual artist who works in a variety of painting and drawing media. A mixed-race Japanese-American, his parents met in Kyoto, Japan while producing Mokuhanga (Woodblock printing) and Nihonga (Japanese Painting). Jeremy graduated from Connecticut College with a B.A. in Fine Arts, where he received support and encouragement from Timothy McDowell, Maureen McCabe, and Barkley Hendricks. After graduating, Nakamura kept practice through the Art Students League of New York. He has shown at the Godwin-Ternbach Museum at Queens College, Court Tree Collective, Chinatown Soup, the Art Students League, and the ISE Cultural Foundation.

Junko Yoda was born in Tokushima, Japan in 1943. During her late college years at Musashino Art University in Tokyo, she saw a group show of fresh American paintings for the first time. The paintings, especially by Jackson Pollock never left her mind. In 1969, Junko moved to New York. She experienced the most exciting beginning of the American Art World in SoHo. Shortly after that, Junko changed her art materials from oil on canvas to acrylic and washi (Traditional Japanese Paper). Junko’s main subject matter through life has been terrain maps and the twisting course of a river from aerial view. All the paintings were made with washi. Some of her river paintings are collections of public museums and collectors. In 2005, Junko received a grant from The Pollock-Krasner Foundation. Ever since digital cameras appeared in the world, Junko added photograph as her new art material along with her regularly used materials. Junko was represented by New York’s pioneer gallery, Zabriskie Gallery for 32 years until the gallery closed permanently with Junko’s solo exhibition “Central Park” in 2010. Junko is busy capturing her subject matter with her camera and following up with the process she developed since her early years.