@KanaNakamura
中村雅奈 Nakamura Kana
画家、イラストレーター。
植物と白いなにかを描いた絵画の展示、書籍の装画を手がける。
中村一般 (Nakamura Ippan) 名義で、漫画の執筆、ポケモンカードゲームなどのイラスト制作を行う。
1995年東京生まれ。ノンバイナリー。女子美術大学ヴィジュアルデザイン専攻卒業。イラストレーション青山塾イラストレーション科修了。2025年より美学校「超・日本画ゼミ」在籍。
主な出版物に、漫画『ゆうれい犬と街散歩』(web路草)、『僕のちっぽけな人生を誰にも渡さないんだ』(シカク出版)、『中村一般作品集・忘れたくない風景』(玄光社)、『えをかくふたり』(小学館、全1巻)がある。また、旅行記４コマ漫画や画集を自主出版し、コミティアや個展で販売している。犬、大きな木、水族館、吉本ばななさんの小説が大好き。
Photo：ソノダノア
Kana Nakamura
(pen name: Nakamura Ippan)
Painter, illustrator, and manga artist based in Tokyo. Nakamura’s practice spans paintings for exhibitions and illustrations for books, as well as manga and artwork for the Pokémon Trading Card Game under the name Nakamura Ippan.
Born in Tokyo in 1995, Nakamura is non-binary. They graduated from Joshibi University of Art and Design with a major in Visual Design and completed the Illustration Course at Aoyama Juku. Since 2025, they have been part of Bigakko’s “Advanced Japanese Painting Seminar.”
Notable publications include the manga A Ghost Dog and Strolling Around Town (Web Michikusa), I Won’t Let Anyone Take Away My Tiny Life (Shikaku Publishing), Nakamura Ippan Art Collection: Landscapes I Don’t Want to Forget (Genkosha), and Two People Drawing Together (Shogakukan). Nakamura also self-publishes travel-themed 4-panel comics and art books, available at COMITIA and solo exhibitions.
Passionate about dogs, towering trees, aquariums, and the novels of Banana Yoshimoto.
Photo: Noa Sonoda
中村雅奈｜Kana Nakamura アーティスト・ステイトメント
中村雅奈は、ざわめく植物の中に、小さな生きものがひっそり佇む風景を描くアーティストです。
作品の根底には、ADHD・自閉スペクトラム症・双極性障害といった自身の特性や、「男でも女でもない」というノンバイナリーの性自認、社会から透明になったかのような感覚が深く影響しています。
中村が「自分はここにいる」と実感した体験は２度あるといいます。
ひとつは、眠れない夜にタンポポをスケッチしていたとき。「植物が頭の中に流れ込んできた」ような感覚に包まれ、安心を覚えました。
もうひとつは、奄美大島からのフェリーで暴風に身をさらされたとき。風に抱かれるような感覚のなか、自分の輪郭がはっきり浮かび上がったと感じたそうです。
こうした体験を起点に、中村は「自然」と「生きものとしての自分」をつなぎなおすように絵を描いています。作品には、タンポポなどの植物が穏やかに、そして鋭く息づいています。
また、東京の道ばたや植え込みといった身近な自然にもまなざしを向け、「近づいて見ると、まるでジャングルのよう」と語ります。にぎやかな都市の片隅にある静かな生命を描くまなざしは、遠くと近く、外側と内側を自由に行き来します。
時折登場する白い犬のような生きものは、中村自身、あるいは幼少期の愛犬の記憶、または“いのち”そのものを象徴する存在。見えるものと見えないもののあわいに佇み、世界と中村自身をそっと結びつけているようです。
Kana Nakamura | Artist Statement
Kana Nakamura is a Tokyo-based artist who paints quiet scenes where a small creature stands alone amid dense, rustling plants.
Nakamura lives with neurodivergent traits including ADHD, bipolar disorder, and autism. These experiences form the emotional and conceptual foundation of their work.
Since childhood, Nakamura has navigated the challenges of interpersonal communication and carries a nonbinary gender identity—neither male nor female. They describe a persistent sense of being transparent to society, as if passing through the world unseen.
There have been two moments in their life when Nakamura felt undeniably present in the world.
One occurred during a prolonged period of insomnia. As they idly sketched a dandelion, they felt the flower “flow into” their mind—a moment of quiet unity in which the boundary between self and plant disappeared, replaced by a strange but profound sense of safety.
The second was on a ferry departing Amami Ōshima. Standing on the deck in the midst of a violent storm, Nakamura felt the wind press against their entire body. In that moment, they sensed their physical form take shape clearly, as if embraced and defined by the world around them.
These deeply embodied experiences guide Nakamura’s artistic practice.
Their paintings attempt to reconnect the self—as a living creature—with the fierce and overwhelming presence of the natural world.
Within each composition, fragments of nature such as dandelions breathe quietly yet sharply, offering glimpses of vitality and resilience.
Nakamura also draws inspiration from their birthplace, Tokyo.
They often depict the unnoticed wilderness that exists within the city—plants growing through cracks in sidewalks or thriving in roadside planters.
“When you look closely,” they say, “even the heart of the city reveals jungles of weeds.” Their gaze captures the quiet lives that grow at the base of urban life, moving freely between the distant and the near, between outer and inner worlds.
A recurring figure in Nakamura’s work is a white, dog-like creature.
Sometimes it resembles the artist themself; other times, it seems to recall a beloved childhood pet.
Nakamura describes it as a kind of fairy-like presence—an embodiment of life itself.
It stands in the space between visibility and invisibility, gently connecting the artist and the world they inhabit.
photo: Noa Sonoda