Education/ Academic Activity
2024 Collection Researcher, Reversible Destiny Foundation, New York, US
2023 Jury, D&AD New Blood Awards, Google Fonts & HMCT, Design and Art Direction, UK
2021–2022 Technical Instructor, Digital Twin Project, Tokyo University of the Arts, Japan
2018–2021 Educational Research Assistant, Art Media Center, Tokyo University of the Arts, Japan
2017 MFA, Department of Design, Tokyo University of the Arts, Japan
2015 BFA, Department of Design, Tokyo University of the Arts, Japan
Awards/ Honors
2024 The Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission, USA
2023 AD FEST Awards, Finalist (design lotus), ADFEST, Thailand
2022 Artists to Watch, ArtConnect, Germany
D&AD Awards, Wood Pencil (Typography), Design and Art Direction, UK
ADC Awards, Silver Cube (Typography), Art Directors Club of New York, USA
ADC Awards, Bronze Cube (Brand/Communication Design), Art Directors Club of New York, USA
ADC Awards, Bronze Cube (Posters / Traditional - Series), Art Directors Club of New York, USA
2021 D&AD Awards, Wood Pencil (Magazine & Newspaper Design), Design and Art Direction, UK
D&AD Awards, Shortlist (Graphic Design), Design and Art Direction, UK
ADC Awards, Merit Honor (Brand/Communication Design), Art Directors Club of New York, USA
The 15th Gunma Biennale for Young Artists, Encouragement Prize, The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, Japan
2018 Tokyo Midtown Award, Runner-up Prize, Tokyo Midtown, Japan
Grants
2024 Program of Overseas Study for Upcoming Artists, Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan
2023 Yoshino Gypsum Art Foundation, Japan
2022 Pola Art Foundation Fellowship, Japan
2019 Arts Council Tokyo, Japan
Residencies
2024 Residency Unlimited, New York, US
2023 Hangar, Barcelona, Spain
Fase, Barcelona, Spain
2022 Tangent Projects, Barcelona, Spain
ANB Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Solo Exhibitions / Performances
2025 “Live Trace”, Residency Unlimited, New York, US
2022 “Over-ride”, online (YouTube)
2021 “The assumption that 1 second = 20cm”, Annual Conference on Academic Computing and Networking, online (Zoom webinar)
2017 Nana Shimomura solo exhibition, Art For Thought, Tokyo, Japan
Group Exhibitions / Performances
2023 Paratext #73 by Nana Shimomura, Daniel Cao and Constanza Piña Pardo, Hanger, Barcelona, Spain
“Trazar una línea” with Julián Rico Engel, Hangar, Barcelona, Spain
Hangar Obert, Hangar, Barcelona, Spain
18, theBLANC Gallery by Sotheby’s Institute of Art, New York, USA
Beyond the Paint, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, New York, USA
Open studio, Fase, Barcelona, Spain
2022 Residency show, Tangent Projects, Barcelona, Spain
Konstellationen, with Shigeru Matsui, Atelier Takiguchi, Tokyo, Japan
2021 The 15th Gunma Biennale for Young Artists, The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, Japan
Roppongi Art Night Spin-Off Project, Roppongi Art Night 2021, online, Japan
Loles live scan streaming with Shigeru Matsui, online (Google Sheets)
Loles live scan streaming with Kenji Seo, AMC Open Lab, online (Google Sheets)
“Bird An-pan and Bootsy Collins”, with Makoto Kawamoto, Ryogoku Monten Hall, Tokyo
2020 Intermedia Art Festival, Huamao Museum of Art Education, Ningbo, China
Seven-hundred Views of Koi Fish, Ritsurin Garden, Kagawa, Japan
“Komorebi”, with Shuntaro Tanikawa, weMORI, Kickstarter
Losles#1, Dohyo, Tokyo, Japan
Losles#2, with Kenji Seo, online (Google Sheets)
2019 Not Necessarily a Device, The University Art Museum, Tokyo University of the Arts, Tokyo, Japan
Kamimiharada Kabuki Stage Bicentennial Festival(with Akira Senju), Gunma, Japan
“Tracing back the flow”, Roppongi Art Night, Tokyo, Japan
Street Museum, Tokyo Midtown, Tokyo, Japan
2018 Tokyo Midtown Award Exhibition, Tokyo Midtown, Tokyo, Japan
2017 Shanghai Art Fair, Shanghai, China
65th Tokyo University of the Arts Graduation Works Exhibitions, the University Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Publications/ Talk/ Public activity
2024 Talk session with Ricard Bru, Today is Tàpies, Antoni Tàpies Foundation, Barcelona, Spain
2020 Text, AMC Journal 4 (2020): pp. 88–107
2019 Moderator, “Hisshoku no mediology”, talk session between Kyuyo Ishikawa and Shigeru Matsui, AMC Open Lab, Tokyo, Japan
Text, AMC Journal 3 (2019): pp. 10–15
Text, AMC Journal 3 (2019): pp. 120–125
Interviews
2022 ArtConnect
2020 weMORI Kickstarter
2019 Pen, no. 468, February 15, 2019, p. 67
Collections
Barry Friedman Ltd, New York, USA
Rin Art Association, Gunma, Japan
Private collection
Nana Shimomura is an artist who deconstructs calligraphy by intertwining her work with contemporary media and informing it through temporal and perceptual analysis. The breadth of her associations with specialists from other domains, such as musicians, dancers, poets, and architects, is reflective of her approach.
Constellations—the inscriptions in the sky, equally visible to all and deeply rooted in ancient human perception—have been an important source of inspiration in her continued exploration for new forms of calligraphic expression that challenge traditional perceptions of the art form through channeling the pure, primal creative impulse of mark-making, or kaku (Japanese: “writing”, “drawing”, and “scratching”)