4th Ward Project Space is pleased to present Parts, Places a solo exhibition of new drawings by Aya Nakamura, all completed in 2025. Over the past year, Nakamura’s attention has turned toward features of a home she and her partner have recently moved into, and the human body. What has emerged is a series of drawings that uncovers the uncanny and “creaturely” qualities shared by the built and the bodily, allowing one to stand in for the other.

These drawings are built slowly and through layered applications of colored pencil on hand-made paper. Nakamura describes the aesthetic sensibility of these drawings as “magpie,” an attraction to disparate things that compel attention through their distinctiveness or evocative power, and toriawase, a Japanese term referring to the bringing together of varied elements to create a resonant whole.