What is going on here?! This is exciting, SaiakuNana says she’s doing things on her own terms, she says she doesn’t want to be at the mercy of anyone, that  she doesn’t like numbers, she doesn’t like that art is about numbers and money (I guess you have to have some to be able to say that, rent isn’t cheap in London these days. most of us have been priced out and our art spaces closed down, more power to her!).

Never mind the numbers, this is exciting! SaiakuNana is sitting in the corner of a gloriously messy gallery that she’s set up herself in an empty shop – a throwback to when East London’s Redchurch Street was alive with art and artists doing their thing on their own terms. Redchurch Street has long since been lost to designer labels and gentrification, I have to confess I’ve walked passed Saiakunana’s space a number of times assuming it was just some fancy designer label clothes outlet or upmarket nail bar or over-priced coffee shop that wasn’t for the likes of me, I’d glanced at it, I’d admired the pink mess, but the fact that it was an art gallery (that had been there since the end of last year) hadn’t registered, you jsut don’t expect art on Redchurch Street any more. 

It looks and sounds brilliant both inside and out, SaiakuNana’s paint is everywhere, this is exciting, a glorious riot of punk rock, pink paint, spray cans, splattered shoes, her own music is playing, almost everything is pink, besides her hair, her hair is bright blue, she’s laughing her head off.  There is very little order, there’s canvas paintings everywhere, they blend into the walls, I nearly said into the background but none of this is background, everything is jumping out. The floor is glorious, the walls are beautiful, the place is alive with splatter, with all kinds of wordery, imagery, with heart. Heart, the whole room, the walls, the floors , everything is alive with heart! I love it, I love the walls, I love the paint splattered guitar, I love the music, I love the flyers, the books, the paintings, the canvas pieces, the writing on the wall, I love it all. Things are very very are pink, the colour is loud, the mess is a glorious punk rock mess, I love the mess. She bills herself as a contemporary artist on her social media, she’s a painter, a musician and well, she says she’s there until Summer 2022, go see for yourself, go explore the photos gown there, there say dar more than words can, I love it! (sw)

The space, Saiakunana Gallery, is open 1pm until 5pm Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays until the Summer. Find it at 30 Redchurch Street, Shoreditch, London, E2 7DP. Read more about the artist underneath the imagery down at the foot of the page.

Do please click on an image to enlarge or to run the fractured slideshow.

More about the artist (from her own website)

Contemporary artist
Born in Japan in 1992 Currently based in London. 

When SaiakuNana first started working as an artist in Japan, she went by her real name “Nana”. However, after a colleague at her job described her paintings as “Saiaku” which means “Terrible”, Nana decided to add “Saiaku” to her real name, thus becoming the artist known as “SaiakuNana”. Beginning in 2015, she began holding solo exhibitions in Tokyo, Japan. 

As a music lover, her works are not limited to the field of art but belong to a wide range of the contemporary art scene, including collaborations with musicians.
In 2018, she won the grand prize at the 21st Taro Okamoto Award for Contemporary Art. Afterwards, she used all her prize money to move to New York and held her first solo exhibition. 

Her first art book “Art Rock Manifesto” (DLE Publishing) was published in April 2019, followed by her first solo exhibition in London. Her largest solo exhibition to date titled “NO REASON” was held at Gallery KATA in Ebisu Liquid Room in Tokyo in 2020. 

For the past 10 years SaiakuNana has never belonged to a gallery, nor has she been invited to join one. Therefore, she decided to set up her own gallery in London
in 2021, “SAIAKUNANA GALLERY” which will be completely founded and owned by herself through self-financing and will exclusively sell her work. 

“Life is art, people, rock and roll, and a gamble.
I’m not satisfied with existing contemporary art, so I want to create a new one.” 

SAIAKUNANA GALLERY