ZINNIA NISHIKAWA

b. 1963, Jilin City, China

WORKS   |   BIOGRAPHY   |   EXHIBITIONS

SELECTED WORKS

BIOGRAPHY

Zinnia Nishikawa was born and grew up in China. She emigrated to the US in the 1980s. Many years ago, she accidentally discovered her drawing abilities by chance during a random doodling session. She found that her hand and pencil guided her to what she deemed to be, a place of mystery and imagination. Since then, she feels drawing has been with her like a shadow: always there. She feels that the mysterious force behind her drawing is her subconscious mind.

Nishikawa does not construct the drawings according to a conscious idea or even a planned composition. Rather, she simply lets it happen. She begins by drawing a tiny element on a random place of the paper, jumps to a completely different place to add another, turns the sheet again and again to work on jet other part until finally the seemingly senseless and unrelated components come together to form a mysterious organic structure.

Sometimes Nishikawa sings strange melodies in unknown languages while she is completely absorbed in the creative automatic process, with the rhythm of the singing corresponding, as it were, to the movements of the pencil across the drawing page.
Although she occasionally uses few colors in her drawings, Nishikawa prefers to work with a single black pencil as she feels this allows the drawing process to flow smoothly.

Zinnia Nishikawa lives in Amelia Island, FL.

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2020 Monochromatic Minds: Lines of Revelation, Jennifer Lauren Gallery at the Candid Arts Centre, London, GB, 2/25 – 3/4/2020
2019 Vision of Wonder, College of Psychic Studies, London, GB, 8/11 – 8/20/2019
2018 Rings Around the Moon, Cavin Morris Gallery New York, NY, 1/4 – 2/10/2018
2018 Almost Art Project, Tabula Rasa Gallery, Beijing, China, 6/29 – 8/10/2018
2017 Edgewalkers & World Builders, Cavin Morris Gallery, New York, NY, 10/12 – 11/25/2017
2017 Immortal Menagerie, Cavin-Morris Gallery, New York, NY, 3/21 – 4/8/2017
2016 Encounters with the Spirit World, College of Psychic Studies and Outside In, London, GB, 8/14 – 8/20/2016
2016 Maverick! Cavin-Morris Gallery, New York, NY, 2/18 – 3/26/2016
2015 Rhizome: New Growth, Cavin-Morris Gallery, New York, NY, 9/10 – 10/10/2015