The Janet Levine March Gallery will feature Arlene Wilson’s exhibit, “Kimonos as Language.” Born in Brooklyn NY, Wilson grew up in the Washington DC area. She moved to Nashville twenty years ago from Providence, RI where she graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in Textiles. In Providence she founded AW Art to Wear, a fiber arts and textile studio. Her company, Alb & Altar, provided altar cloths, robes and bishop’s miters to the church community there.
Previously Wilson founded the internationally franchised Merry Go Round Stained Glass Company in conduction with Merry Go Round Restorations engaged in preservation and adaptive reuse of historic buildings in Fort Smith AR.
Japanese friends and travels have often influenced her work, inspiring a series of fine art kimonos to honor the Japanese culture and the 2011 Fukushima Tsunami. Speaking through cloth, Wilson has shown her work from Boston to Tokyo. This will be her first solo exhibit at the J Galleries.
The JLMG2 Gallery will feature the work of Kamiko Sakai, a painter and fine arts photographer known professionally as Kimiko. For her, the creation of art is a deeply spiritual process influenced by both the energy of people and her Japanese heritage.
Born in the noble and colorful city of Aizuwakamatsu (in Fukushima) in 1960, Kimiko grew up in a household of 12 children. The sole daughter of the family, she caught the creative bug early, often drawing or making things out of disused cardboard boxes. As a young woman, she attended the prestigious Toyo University at Hakusan campus.
After graduating from NSCC, Kimiko’s talents were quickly recognized. In 2000, her artwork was selected by Friskies Cat Food for their national photography contest. This image—which featured a cat sleeping by a window—was selected out of a pool of 20,000 submissions!
Shortly after winning the Friskies Cat Food contest, Kimiko caught the attention of The Arts Company gallery. This representation led to frequent art shows exhibiting her travel photography. In 2005, her work reached personnel from Travelers Rest Historic House and Museum. The museum later commissioned Kimiko for a Nashville-focused art show exhibited at the Nashville Public Library.
In 2006, Kimiko branched out into oil painting. In 2009, she exhibited a new series of works at Tennessee’s Railroad Train Museum in Dickson County. Entitled “Bound for Harvest,” this series was a celebration of rural farm life. Depicting the homes, crops, and livestock of Dickson County farmers, this series told the stories of these historic farm families, showcasing how their hard work affected the community as a whole.
Kimiko cites several influences for her work. In addition to people and pets, she loves traveling, having visited Ecuador, the Galapagos, the Madagascar Islands, and Korea. She’s a big fan of architecture, as seen by her hand-tinted landscapes of iconic Nashville buildings like Pinnacle Financial, First Bank, and the Omni Hotel. She’s also a big fan of music history, having completed several series of more traditional music portraiture featuring artists such as Johnny Cash and Minnie Pearl. Taking a commission, Kimiko returned to musician portraits in 2024 for a commemorative series on The Beatles, this time putting a poetic spin on each member.
Kimiko is currently represented by the Shimai Gallery of Contemporary Craft at The Loveless Cafe.
The Sig Held Gallery will continue to feature the art of Larry Frank. Frank has always thrived at the crossroads of creativity and chaos. Whether orchestrating vibrant live music experiences or crafting bold visual art in his studio, he is driven by a relentless desire to create something extraordinary. His paintings, like his approach to life, are dynamic, layered, and unapologetically original.
The Senior Lounge will continue to feature the work of Pamela Dove.
The House gallery will feature the Under One Roof collaborative exhibit.
The Exhibition Dates are July 1st -31st.
The Artist reception will be held on July 23rd from 6-8 pm and feature music by DJ Joseph Harris, pop up jewelry by Chandler Dezigns and Henna by Seemi.
The exhibitions are free and open to the public. For more information, contact the GJCC at 615.354-1699, Curator Carrie Mills at carrie@nashvillejcc.org, or go to www.nashvillejcc.org.
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