Laurel Nakadate

• Name — Laurel Nakadate • Born — 1975 • Birthplace — Austin, Texas, United States • Field — photography, video, film • Education — School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Yale University

Laurel Nakadate was born 1975 in Austin, Texas and raised in Ames, Iowa. Nakadate graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree in 1998 from Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She also earned a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in 2001 for photography from Yale University. Nakadate's work is displayed in numerous collections and museums around the United States, namely the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Yale University Art Gallery, the Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Princeton University Art Museum, Smith College Museum of Art, LACMA, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Saatchi Collection. Nakadate's 2005 solo show at Danziger Projects, "Love Hotel and Other Stories", was featured in The New York Times, The Village Voice, and Flash Art. Art critic Jerry Saltz named her a "standout" in the 2005 "Greater New York" show at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, New York Since then, Nakadate's work has been exhibited at the Getty Museum, Los Angeles; the Asia Society, New York; the Reina Sofia, Madrid; the Berlin Biennial; Grand Arts, Kansas City; and at Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York. A ten-year retrospective of her work, called Only the Lonely, was on view at MoMA PS1 from January 23 to August 8, 2011. A cover interview with the artist appeared in the October 2006 issue of The Believer. Nakadate's first feature-length film, Stay The Same Never Change, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, on January 16, 2009, and was featured in the 2009 New Directors/New Films Festival at The Museum of Modern Art and Lincoln Center. Her second feature, The Wolf Knife, premiered at the 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival, and was nominated for a 2010 Gotham Award and a 2011 Independent Spirit Award. Nakadate currently lives and works in New York City and is the Director of Graduate Studies at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Laurel Nakadate is known for creating video and photographic works that explore themes of sexuality, femininity and gender roles, and the knife-edge between vulnerability and power within chance encounters. Nakadate has often used herself as a subject within her work, documenting her interactions with strangers in various settings. Tonally, her work has been described as "disturbingly intimate"," as well as "creepy" art where "voyeurism, exhibitionism, and hostility merge with gullibility, cunning, and folly." One of Nakadate’s first works was her film Happy Birthday (2000). In this film, Nakadate asked three men to celebrate her birthday with her in intimate, one-on-one encounters. Surprisingly, however, it was not her birthday and she did not know these men. Happy Birthday (2000) establishes the direction of her work to follow, in that she explores the uncertainty of relationships with strangers. Through her work, Nakadate aims to establish herself as a host and a hostage simultaneously, diving deeper into the controversial issues of being an Asian American woman in a white, male dominated society. Two of Nakadate’s most important works, Beg For Your Life (2006) and Oops (2007), focus on themes of control and danger. Nakadate focuses on the ideas in feminism and empowers women to reverse the power in gender roles while putting herself in “dangerous situations with men." Through these stranger interactions, Nakadate works to send the message that she is the one who controls the narrative. Her collaboration with James Franco, a live performance titled Three Performances in Search of Tennessee (2011), was commissioned for Performa 11, the fourth edition of the Performa Biennial. Her newer photographic work, Relations, explores Nakadate's own genealogy through photos of distant relatives. Her feature film The Wolf Knife continues Nakadate's common themes of voyeurism, connection, and intimacy.

Nakadate's work has stirred some controversial debates concerning her work with race and gender. Critics have also been skeptical of Nakadate's work ethically, as many believe that her work with strangers is "manipulating" them. Refuting this point, The Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects of New York states that Nakadate's work sidesteps the fact that "everyone is acting" and that this concept is key to understanding Nakadate's work and her artfulness. One point Mary Ann Doane states about Nakadate’s work on the male and stranger gaze is that the "patriarchy has always already said everything (everything and nothing).”

She lives in Brooklyn and Dutchess County, and is married to novelist Rick Moody.

Laurel Nakadate is recorded with the occupation film director. Recorded with the occupation video artist. Recorded as film director, screenwriter, photographer and video artist.