“From coastal resiliency and sustainable green practices to the preservation of affordable housing, world-class public art, and vibrant, year-round programming in award-winning public spaces, Battery Park City leads the way in many of the measures that makes cities livable."

Raju Mann

President & CEO
  • 01/17
  • Art & Culture
  • BPC People
  • Community

BPC PEOPLE — Yoshihiro Youkee Nishida

Title: Battery Park City Parks Gardener and BPC Resident

Favorite BPC Spot: Area between Museum of Jewish Heritage and Wagner Park

Yoshihiro Youkee Nishida was born in Kyoto, Japan. After receiving a law degree from Kwansei University, he moved to the United States and pursue his true passion: art.
Asked about this unconventional career progression, Yoshihiro answers the way a true artist would: “The law is already established. Art is open – and open to interpretation – which means you can make your own path.” And the path he has forged in the art world is a unique one indeed.

At age of 27, Yoshihiro received his Bachelors of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts in printmaking from the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, California. Being the passionate and driven person that he is, Yoshihiro then went on to study at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, earning a Master’s of Fine Arts in Lithography. It was at Cranbrook where Yoshihiro was inspired to take a new direction by one of his professors after receiving an evaluation about his art quality, and at 35 years old he began his journey through art.

Twenty years ago Yoshihiro moved to New York where he began full time work inside a studio. Currently, he is a part-time artist and a gardener in Battery Park City Parks. It is his time as a gardener that has most recently impacted his approach. “Art de Genki,” which means art through vital energy, is the name he now gives his work.

Over the past two decades his solo shows include exhibitions all over the world. His newest exhibition – and first in New York City – “The only Person in the vast world! Practice Accessing Vital Source through Art,” is being showcased at the Center for Remembering & Sharing. This exhibition of acrylic paintings on burlap explores the relationship between materials and the artist. The exhibition will be shown through February 6, 2018.

In his spare time, he likes to visit museums and marvel at work by Matisse, Miró, and Kandinsky, some of his favorite artists of all time. Since 2006, from April through October on weekends and holidays, he creates chalk drawings in the park. The park itself has become his studio and his canvas is the pavement. His unique designs incorporating BPC’s hex pavers are a beautiful tribute to the idea that everything is integrated in Battery Park City: gardening, art and living.

 

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