Some things that were, some things that are, and some things that have not yet come to pass:

Yesterday I posted some thoughts about the Carnegie International on Instagram:

A lot of people keep asking me what I think about the newest Carnegie International exhibition. Have I seen it? Am I going to? I’ve told most people that I’ll see it eventually—I don’t really care. And that’s true, to some extent. The essay that I wrote about the International in 2022 was an indictment of an exhibition that was careless at best. However, in writing it, it also became, for me, an indictment of museums in general. While I might have previously believed that the good that museums offered outweighed their structural problems, writing about the International exhibition fundamentally changed the way that I think about what museums are, what they’re capable of, and who they represent.

Maybe this exhibition *is* better than the last one. (I mean, I hope so…it’s a pretty low fucking bar.) But that’s not really what matters to me. Whether it’s ‘good’ or not isn’t the question that I’m asking. What I’m asking is: what does it mean for an exhibition to be ‘good’ if it doesn’t help myself and others live in a more liberated way? What does it mean for an exhibition to be harmful if there’s no accountability for it? A museum can take a bad review because a bad review doesn’t really matter. Exhibitions come and go but museums stay the same. And why shouldn’t they? What incentive do they have to change?

I say I don’t care because I don’t actually believe that museums represent me, my creative practice, or the kind of art that I want to see in the world. But the other truth is that I do care—a lot, actually. The truth is that I felt really hurt by the last exhibition. It was the first time I went to a museum and I felt like I didn’t belong there. That feeling doesn’t go away easily. When I think about that exhibition and about the museum, sometimes I feel really sad. Sometimes I feel fucking pissed. Not everyone likes subjective art writing, but it’s important for me to write about my personal feelings because my experience of art is a subjective experience. Isn’t that the thing they say about art? That it’s subjective?

I have no plans to see the exhibition, but don’t worry—I’m not worried that I’m missing out. There’s so much to art to see, and honestly (?) so many cooler places to see it.

Earlier this year, The Thirty-Two Physical Characteristics of the Buddha included in the Helsinki Analog Festival, organized by the Finnish Darkroom Association. I’m very thankful to have my work included in the festival, and thankful that they shared these wonderful phots of the exhibition. (This was Miso's first trip overseas. )

Stuck in Saṃsāra has closed, but if you missed the exhibition you can see what you missed on my website—I just uploaded all of the exhibition photos taken by Chris Uhren. If you want to read more and engage with the work, I have a few copies left of Stuck in Saṃsāra: Dispatches from the Burning House, which features images from the exhibition along with an essay by Karen Lue (published on Bunker Review), a new essay (and an old essay) by me, new writing from Jenna Peng and Elina Zhang, and questions about the artworks written by both Jenna and Elina for the workshop Our Mutual Suffering. Also available on my website.

I have a piece for sale in this year’s Out of Hand auction at Contemporary Craft. The auction is this Saturday, but bidding is now live. The piece for sale is a cast pewter tokkosho, a simplified form of a Buddhist ritual vajra.

Next Month I will be at Peter’s Valley School of Craft teaching an introduction to Bookbinding class. I was there last year teaching suminagashi and I’m looking forward to going back. The Thirty-Two Physical Characteristics of the Buddha will also be included in their instructor exhibition Making Matters.

Miso came to see the Distillery Residency Exhibition last week at Brew House. (You should too—it’s on view through June 20.) Here she is ignoring Kaylani Brown’s paintings, and anxious to approach Isabella Schubert-Jones installation, Swan Lake. Miso didn’t care for the exhibition very much, but can you blame her? She’s color-blind and scared of most things that are bigger than her.

Best,

Brent

Stuck in Saṃsāra is on view at Bunker Projects! Thank you so much to everyone who has already stopped by, especially those who have gotten to stay and talk with me about it.

Karen Lue has written a really thoughtful essay responding to the exhibition, and reflecting on her own experiences of anger and suffering, which you can read now at Bunker Review. Karen is a really talented photographer whose work was included in Plain Silk, Uncarved Wood, which I curated at AAP in 2022. I’m really glad and thankful to have her words accompany the work here.

There are three more weeks to visit the exhibition. Gallery hours are 12-7 on Thursdays, and 12-2 on Sundays. There are also a couple more public events that you can join, including the First Fridays Unblurred Art Crawl tomorrow evening along Penn Ave. in Garfield.

In a Bind: Bookbinding Workshop with Brent Nakamoto
Saturday, March 21, 1-4 pm

Stop by any time during this free drop-in bookbinding workshop to make and take home an exclusive chapbook featuring images and writing about the exhibition. No experience necessary. Please register so we can plan materials accordingly. Click the form here to register.

Sometimes Miso stares at me while I’m working:

Best,

Brent

I’m excited to announce and invite you to Stuck in Saṃsāra, opening at Bunker Projects on Friday, February 6, during the Unblurred Art Crawl.

Taking inspiration from the Lotus Sutra, this exhibition reimagines the Parable of the Burning House, one of the most important stories from the sutra. The story describes a vast house, owned by a very rich man, which suddenly catches fire. The man’s children are so busy playing that they do not notice or believe that the house is burning. In order to save them, he promises to give them his riches if they leave the house. In the story, the burning house represents the world of suffering—or samsara—and the man’s riches represent the Buddha’s teachings of liberation—nirvana. However, the sutra teaches that this is just a story. In truth, there is no way out of the house. We can only find liberation within the flames. The world of suffering is the world of liberation—to awaken to suffering is liberation itself.

Central to the story, and to the exhibition, is the image of fire in its many forms. Fire is destruction and death, but it’s also energy, purification, rebirth, life itself. Flames destroy but they also bloom. Alongside fire, the works in the exhibition also explore themes of attention and awareness, sexuality and desire, nature, beauty, ritual, devotion, and grief. The exhibition seeks to present these images in a way that challenges conventional dualistic distinctions.

The exhibition features ten AAPI artists from around the country, including Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and St. Louis, working in painting, drawing, printmaking, ceramics, sculpture, and video. Exhibited artists are Christian Bañez, Martin Castro, Jon Chao, Anne Chen, Eriko Hattori, Marius Keo Marjolin, Brent Nakamoto, Anthony Park Kascak, Sara Tang, and Song Watkins Park.

Stuck in Saṃsāra, is produced with support from Jaded PGH and will be on view at Bunker Projects from February 6-March 22. The gallery will be open Thursdays 5-7 pm, Sundays 12-2 pm, and by appointment. Please stay tuned for more information about upcoming workshops throughout the length of the exhibition.

See you there 🔥

Brent

As many of you are doing holiday shopping, a reminder that all books from Almost Perfect Press are available at almostperfectpress.com. All sales support local artists and writers :)

Here are a couple other places you can see and buy my work—including two events this Friday.

Ari Moline will be from their new book “god with blinking red light ON”, this Friday at 6:30 at Fungus Books—joined by Dade Lemanski, Segolene Pihut, Elina Zhang, Izzy Knapp, and Jenna Peng.

“god with blinking red light ON” will be available for sale at the event, and there are still copies available at almostperfectpress.com.

Also on Friday, AAP is having the reception for the second drop of the 115x115 Exhibition—featuring works all for sale for $115, that support both the artists and the organization. I have a couple of pieces still available for sale, including a new collage and two sets of suminagashi printed cards and envelopes. If you can’t make it to the event, you can still shop these works and more on the online store.

Another one of these new collages is also currently on view in THE PULL: THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF PRINTMAKING at the Arts Council of Princeton, curated by Dave DiMarchi and Elizabeth Massa, alongside some other older prints.

Brr. I don’t like the cold weather, but I am looking forward to having some time this winter to work on some new projects. (I have some more big things that I am looking forward to sharing soon!)

Best,

Brent

Just popping in to say thank you for visiting me at the Pittsburgh Art Book Fair a couple of weeks ago. I didn’t take any pictures because I was busy! Which is good.

Here are the rest of the events I have scheduled for the year:

Tuesday, October 14 - Betweenness Book Launch and Poetry Reading
I’ll be reading from “My Dreams” at Cozy Corner Book Store to celebrate the release of Varun Ravindran’s new poetry collection, “Betweenness.” Will be joined by Varun and Catherine Gammon, who have both published with Almost Perfect.

Sunday, October 19 - Pittsburgh Zine Fair
I’ll be at the Pittsburgh Zine Fair again, and will be launching one final book the year (whoo…): Ari Moline’s “god with blinking red light ON”, with illustrations by Jacques Gardener. It’s a collection of surrealist fantasies about language, relationships, desire, naming, salt, tubes, gravity, and other subjects. Will be available at AlmostPerfectPress.com starting October 19.

Sunday, November 16 - Scribble House Lit Fest
Lastly, I will be at Scribble House Lit Fest next month at Spirit. It’s a new event in its second year. Hope to see you there :)

Here’s Miso reenacting my favorite scene from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (maybe):

“In place of a dark lord, you would have a queen. Not dark, but beautiful and terrible as the dawn. Treacherous as the sea. Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair.”

Bye!

If you didn’t make it, here is the link to watch the short film by David Bernabo about my studio practice:

I owe a huge thanks to David for choosing to point his camera at me for a couple days last fall. I've spent the couple of years talking a lot about binding books by hand, but I know that a lot of people don’t really know what that means or what kind of work goes into making a book. It’s really special to have such a beautiful video to show what this studio practice looks like.

I’m also very thankful for all the positive feedback so far. I felt a bit self-conscious publicly showing my studio, since my studio is also my home. But I trusted David to make it look good and I’m happy that you all can focus on what I’m saying and doing rather than the mess in the background. (Yes, I made all of the swords. Most of them are copies of the swords from Adventure Time. The painting of Ice King was a present from Zim Syed <3. The photo of Elmo is the first test print that I took to Copies@Carson to make sure that my paper was compatible with their printer. I don’t know why they printed a photo of Elmo, but I am a huge fan so he’s been one of my press mascots since then.)

Next weekend, September 20-21, I’ll be at the Pittsburgh Art Book Fair at the Carnegie Museum of Art. I’ll have several books for sale, including the new releases. Also, some stickers…? Miso will be mad that I’m out of the house all weekend, but she will be there in spirit. See you there :)

Best,

Brent

I was really committed to not writing this newsletter through another web platform, but my email was not allowing me to send this out, so here we are. Some recent and upcoming news:

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At the beginning of the month I spent a (long) weekend at Peter's Valley School of Craft teaching a workshop called Experiments in Suminagashi. It was my first time at Peter's Valley and my first time teaching an extended suminagashi workshop, and the results were really exciting and inspiring. We created stacks of prints on paper and on fabric, made some collaborative prints as a group, and with our prints made envelopes, books (accordions, pop-ups, stab bindings, case-bound, and softcover), and collages. Here are some images of the studio and class work :)

Also had some fun in this inflatable by Mookntaka :P

Here's what's coming up next:

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Almost Perfect Press Book Launch + Reading + Film Screening

Saturday, August 30, 6-8 pm, at Bottom Feeder Books

On August 30, we're celebrating the release of two new books, with readings from Ari Moline, Brent Nakamoto, Catherine Gammon, Jenna Peng, and Varun Ravindran, and a short film by David Bernabo.

What is your work? by Catherine Gammon, is a selection of micro-hybrid-fictions—short unclassifiables, not quite fiction, not quite non-fiction, neither fiction nor non-fiction, neither neither nor both, and some people say they are poems.

My Dreams, by Brent Nakamoto, is a collection of dreams and stories about dreams.

I'll have these and other books for sale, including a new chapbook edition of The Thirty-Two Physical Characteristics of the Buddha, an homage to my dog in thirty-two photos.

All books are currently available on my website, with a preorder discount.

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Pittsburgh Art Book Fair

If you can't make it to the book launch, I will also have a table this year at the Pittsburgh Art Book Fair, September 20 and 21st.

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Other News:

I Believe I Know is on view at Tomayko Foundation through September 19. I Believe I Know features work from friends of Almost Perfect Maggie Bjorklund, Centa Schumacher (both featured in The Garden), and Sobia Ahmad. The exhibition "brings together revelatory works to explore everyday experiences of transcendental awareness, exposing the synchronicity of the divine and human."

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I recently had some new headshots taken by friend Karen Lue. So happy to have some professional photos of me and Miso together. (Also I cut my hair! If you haven't seen me recently...)

Best,

Brent

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