Monex : 14th ART IN THE OFFICE 2021 winning artwork entry completed

14th ART IN THE OFFICE 2021 winning artwork entry completed

Tokyo, August 18, 2021 - Monex Group, Inc. (headquarters: Minato Ward, Tokyo; Representative Executive Officer

and CEO: Oki Matsumoto) is pleased to announce that Yumi Nakata has been selected as the winning artist of ART IN THE OFFICE 2021, the company's social contribution and employee awareness initiative, and that her artwork has been completed. Ms. Nakata was chosen from among 157 entries this year for her winning work called "Near and Far (IN THE OFFICE)." During these challenging times brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, this artwork attempts to break through a sense of stagnation and to try out a new expression based on flexible ideas and unique techniques.

ART IN THE OFFICE is a program to support up-and-coming contemporary artists by creating opportunities to display their work. With a desire to advance contemporary art's pursuit of new forms of expression and focus on various societal issues, this program was started in 2008 and is operated with the cooperation of Arts Initiative Tokyo (AIT), a non-profit organization.

In addition to serving as a springboard for the winning artist's career, ART IN THE OFFICE aims to prompt employees to think creatively and see things flexibly from various perspectives for an ever-changing future so that Monex can move forward to lead the times in line with the company's brand slogan, "For Creative Minds."

(Photo) Monex Group, Inc. Press Room (GALAXY)

ART IN THE OFFICE 2021 work / Yumi Nakata / Near and Far（IN THE OFFICE）/ 2021 / Inkjet print on tarpaulin, Oil on canvas/ Dimensions variable

◆Winning artist and her artwork

1．ART IN THE OFFICE 2021 winning artwork title: Near and Far（IN THE OFFICE）

2．Profile of Yumi Nakata, winning artist

Born in Nara in 1984, Yumi completed her doctorate in oil painting at Kyoto City University of Arts in 2016. Her doctoral dissertation, "Impossible Self-Portrait: A Method for Seeing the Invisible Self and the Invisible World," in which she researched self-portraits painted up to the modern era and analyzed the structure of their formation from the perspective of the painter, won the Umehara Prize. Her major exhibitions include "NEW JAPANESE PAINTING" (2020, MIKIKO SATO GALLERY, Hamburg), "TO SELF BUILD" (2019, BnA Alter Museum SCG, Kyoto), "The Present Place of Painting" (2018, Sapporo Odori Underground Gallery 500m Museum of Art), and NEW INCUBATION 8 Ryusuke Ito & Yumi Nakata "Diorama and Panorama - Diverting Realities" (2016, Kyoto Art Center). She is also an oil painting major part-time lecturer at Kyoto City University of Arts.

Yumi Nakata website:https://nakatayumi.tumblr.com/

3．Comment from Yumi Nakata

"If I were to describe Monex as a person, rather than a company, how would the personality of Monex be developed?" Using techniques I have developed thus far, I created the work with this question in mind.

Before creating the work, I asked Monex employees to share their personal photos as well as their thoughts and feelings for the photos. Bringing these thoughts and feelings together, I drafted an essay, "a story of people waiting for encounters." The work shows individual photos as small chapters that creates the large story as a whole, appealing to the eyes of the viewers. The collages are made to match the original story, and the images, printed out on fabric for advertisements, are displayed over the entire walls. In addition to this artwork, three oil paintings are being exhibited, reflecting the collaged images and the personal items shared by employees.

I hope you enjoy the overlapping of colors and shapes, looking at each piece in the work closeup and from afar, as you chat with colleagues next to you. It would be wonderful if everyone involved in this work and anyone who enjoys the work encounter new experiences to build on happy memories.

◆About the selection of the winner 1．ART IN THE OFFICE support

One person (or one group) selected among entries submitted by publicly recruited participants will be provided space to exhibit the winning work in the company's Press Room for approximately one year. The selected artist will receive ¥500,000 in prize money as well as ¥100,000 to cover production costs. In addition, the winning artwork will appear on the company's annual report and other materials and used for original novelty goods.

In 2019, ART IN THE OFFICE was selected for "This is MECENAT 2019," a certification system of the Association for Corporate Support of the Arts. In 2012, the program received the 2012 Good Design Award (G-Mark System) from the Japan Institute of Design Promotion.

2．Selection criteria

• Artists in the contemporary art field (students permitted)
• A unique and innovative work that reflects an understanding of the characteristics of the Press Room

3. Judges (alphabetical order)

Akira Aoki	(Independent Curator)
Natsumi Araki	(Curator, Associate Professor at Tokyo University of the Arts)
Nobuko Nakano	(Brain Scientist, Ph.D., Cognitive Scientist, Professor at Higashi Nippon International
	University)
Oki Matsumoto	(Chairman and CEO, Monex Group, Inc.)
Yuko Shiomi	(Director, Arts Initiative Tokyo)

Monex Group ART IN THE OFFICE website:https://www.monexgroup.jp/en/esg/art_in_the_office.html

Akiko Kato	Yuki Nakano, Minaka Aihara
Corporate Communications Office	Investor Relations, Financial Control Department
Monex Group, Inc.	Monex Group, Inc.
[phone]	[phone]