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Patrick Nagatani: Themes and Variations

Related Member: Patrick Nagatani

Reception: October 8, 2015, 7-8:30 pm
Gallery tour/talk October 8, 2015, 5pm

Patrick Ryoichi Nagatani is bursting with ideas and stories to tell. For more than 30 years, he has been sharing his narratives through the pictures he makes. What’s going on here, you ask? Splashes of color irradiate parts of people, pets and wild creatures, kachinas soar with missiles, and archaeological digs expose 20th century automobiles in incongruous places and eras. Nagatani’s images take you on fascinating journeys that explore history, personal philosophy, culture, spirituality, fantasy and reality. Images from seven major bodies of work that Nagatani has completed are presented here as well as a literary and photographic novel, “The Race,” that he is currently creating with other artists.

For his creative photography, Nagatani has received numerous awards, among them, the Aaron Siskind Foundation Individual Photographer's Fellowship, The Kraszna-Krausz Award for his book Nuclear Enchantment, the Leopold Godowsky Jr. Color Photography Award, the Eliot Porter Fellowship in New Mexico, the California Distinguished Artist Award from the National Art Education Association, and National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artist Fellowships in 1984 and 1992.

A professor of Art and Art History at the University of New Mexico where he taught for 20 years, Nagatani retired in 2006. The Society of Photographic Education conferred upon him the Honored Educator Award in 2008, and, in 2003, New Mexico’s then Governor Bill Richardson presented Nagatani with the "Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts.” Nagatani has served as a panelist for the Illinois Art Council, Southern Arts Federation, Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, California Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He remains an active member of the Atomic Photographer’s Guild.

Patrick Nagatani: Themes and Variations was partially drawn from Desire for Magic – Patrick Nagatani 1978-2008, the exhibition and monograph, curated by Michele M. Penhall, Curator of Prints and Photographs at the University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque. That exhibition traveled to the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles and was exhibited at the Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences of West Virginia.

The Griffin Museum of Photography is pleased to offer a distinctive and expanded version of the initial exhibition. Barbara P. Hitchcock, Independent Curator and former Curator of the Polaroid Collection, organized and curated Patrick Nagatani: Themes and Variations.

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