DANE NAKAMA

"At what point does our culture turn into mythology - does our ancestry become stories we tell our children before they go to sleep? At what distance do our homelands become dreamlands? Does our blood begin to speak a different language? Or do our bones turn to milk?"

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Dane Nakama (b. 1999, Honolulu, Hawai'i) is a 4th generation Japanese-Uchinanchu ceramicist, painter, and educator raised on Oʻahu. They are currently based on Tongva land, Los Angeles California. Throughout their childhood, Nakamaʻs father– a retired Hawaiian history teacher– lulled them to sleep with bedtime stories about Hawaiian akua, Japanese folklore, and familial history. These stories served as a catalyst for the dreamy, multicultural lexicon that make up Nakama's work today. Their work often explores themes of cultural hybridity, settler colonialism, and ancestral knowledge. Having exhibited nationally and internationally, Nakama received a BFA from the California Institute of the Arts and is a current UCLA MFA candidate in ceramics.