Ryuta Nakajima

Ryuta Nakajima is an Assistant Professor of Painting and Drawing at Department of Art and Design, University of Minnesota Duluth. His work attempts to answer the question: "Why do we make images, where do they come from, and what is their primary function?" One way he is tackling this enigma is by exploring the camoflauging behavior of cuttlefish in photographs and video.

As he outlines in his artist's statement:

"Although the objectives for cuttlefish are very different from those of artists—survival and reproduction for the cuttlefish and aesthetics and metaphysics for artists—the fundamental three-step structure [exterior information - the environment, an individual interpretation - the act of camouflage or painting, and visual output - the new shape and color or the painting itself] remains very similar between them."