jam at LURF GALLERY
LURF GALLERY presents jam, a solo exhibition by Ai Nariyama, hosted on the gallery’s second floor from 21 August through 13 September 2026.
Nariyama’s artistic practice centers on creating imagery that resists simple categorization as either abstract or figurative.
Her canvases translate fresh, vivid sensations directly from memory into painted form, resulting in elusive shapes that invite viewers to actively interpret what they see.
In this way, the audience becomes an essential collaborator, picking up where Nariyama leaves off to make sense of the fluid visual field.
Within her compositions, multiple images overlap without converging into a single definitive meaning; forms and colors clash dynamically, shifting their expressions as the viewer’s eye moves across the surface.
The exhibition title jam reflects the dense, concentrated state of thought during her creative process, where varied images and sensations are tightly packed together.
Nariyama’s statement explores the challenge of rendering non-physical, unfocused mental images on a flat surface using tactile, material paint.
She notes that while her works contain present forms, they do not belong strictly to non-figurative art, nor do they rely on traditional figurative construction.
Instead, she describes the elements on the canvas as figurative, while the act of extracting those components functions as an abstract process.
Rather than attempting to fix a clear image, Nariyama captures the tantalizing sensation of searching for focus—a feeling of trying to grasp something that constantly eludes reach.
This frustration aligns with her core philosophical approach of looking at the world with productive doubt.
To prevent her private memories from becoming overly sentimental, Nariyama references widespread visual media and snapshots alongside her personal experiences.
After absorbing vast quantities of these everyday images, she paints the residual impressions that settle deep within her consciousness.
Building a canvas stroke by stroke can easily become overly explanatory, so she deliberately works against this tendency to keep the surface unsettled and dynamic.
The resulting body of work draws from images tightly packed into her mind—a state she compares to a jar of jam filled with thick fruit pulp.
Through this exhibition, Nariyama invites viewers to engage with these concentrated layers of memory, perception, and painterly form.
Ai Nariyama explores how to translate non-physical, unfocused mental images into a clearly defined, two-dimensional plane using tactile, material paint.
Her work investigates the challenge of capturing these elusive impressions of memory, examining how paint can represent or serve as an allegory for concepts that inherently resist a fixed focus.
