Estimated Value: $1,050-1,260 11 x 14 inches. Oil, cold wax and colored pencil on gessoed board tinted with indigo dye. Part of LA series. Surfing is life. Says this Pisces, who doesn’t actually surf in the waters enough but knows that feeling of pure bliss when you catch a wave. Surfing, like life, throws you ever-changing waves, and you have to intend to ride the wave of choice in that moment, trusting that even if you get knocked down, you'll come out of it alive, ready to catch the next one. There may be days you have to just float on the water, waiting for the right one to come, but the more you ride, the wiser you get at discerning the wave to go after and the more courageous you get at facing gnarlier waves.

Shizuka Kusayanagi

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Shizuka Kusayanagi (b. 1982, Yokohama, Japan) is an artist, designer, and educator whose practice centers on painting, drawing, and text as forms of translation—exploring how personal and emotional experiences can be expressed beyond words. After more than 25 years living in New York and Los Angeles, she recently returned to Japan and now lives and works in Fukuoka. Working primarily in oil painting, Kusayanagi also works across drawing, printmaking, installation, photography, video, and text. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including a solo show at Signal Gallery in Fukuoka, Japan; DMST Atelier, Project Space, and la Beast Gallery in Los Angeles; Arario Gallery in New York; and in Dublin, Ireland. Recent exhibitions include All The (Healing) Parts (2024), Positive Exposure: Southern California Asian American Art (2023), and CHIMERA (2023). Kusayanagi was selected for the Fall 2023 IKEA Residency and shortlisted for the Spring 2023 Hopper Prize. Her IKEA residency experience was featured in The Los Angeles Times. Her short film was selected for the Motionpoems film catalog in association with the Poetry Foundation, and her drawings and installations have been featured in Graphic Magazine and Grafuck. She holds a BFA in Communication Design from Parsons School of Design in New York.