24 September - 30 October 2010
 |
| © Kohei Nawa
"Dot-Fragment_Q#2", 2010
h.140 x w. 70 cm
photo by OMOTE Nobutada |
| | |
KOHEI NAWA
"Synthesis"
2010.9.24(Fri) - 10.30(Sat)
Kohei Nawa was born in Osaka, Japan in 1975. Following "GUSH," his 2006
solo exhibition at SCAI THE BATHHOUSE, Nawa became remarkably
productive, receiving exceptional acclaim from around the world. Last
year, 2009, he presented his "L_B_S" exhibition at Maison Hermès Le
Forum in Ginza, and overseas, participated in the 6th Asia Pacific
Triennial of Contemporary Art in Brisbane, where his exhibit was
highlighted on the cover of the exhibition catalog, attracting a great
deal of international attention.. This year, he has exhibited at the
Busan Biennale and represented Japan at the 14th Asian Art Biennale
Bangladesh. At the same time, his projects have become more varied,
including creating the PixCell via PRISMOID mobile phone concept for the
KDDI iida Art Editions series, and installing public art near Toyosu
Station in Tokyo. The artist has also converted an old sandwich factory
in the Fushimi area of Kyoto to launch an art studio platform named
SANDWICH. As its director, Nawa runs the studio, which, in addition to
working on Nawa's own creations, brings together creators of different
genres, including artists, designers, and architects, to work on diverse
projects. (See http://sandwich-cpca.net)
Nawa's art is realized using a diversity of materials, including beads,
prisms, silicon oil, polyurethane foam, and glue, but almost all of his
works focus on a single material and a single texture. Whether
categorized as BEADS, PRISM, LIQUID, SCUM, or GLUE, his works all share
an awareness of surfaces or skins. When we try to perceive the world
around us, we depend primarily on surfaces, or, in other words, sensory
information received through our senses of sight and touch. Today,
digital technology and the ubiquity of the Internet mean that the
world's surfaces can all be converted into digital information,
processed, and archived. Nawa first discovers an object in the form of
digital information on an Internet auction site, and orders it to obtain
something that has a real mass and feel. Then, using analog methods
like covering the object's surface with glass beads or placing it inside
a prism box, he manipulates the object's surface information,
converting it into a PixCell sculpture that constitutes a new data
format. 'PixCell,' which appears in the titles of his BEADS and PRISM
works, is a term Nawa coined by merging the words 'pixel' and 'cell.')
Nawa's latest solo exhibition at SCAI THE BATHHOUSE, entitled
"Synthesis," presents a new development in the BEADS series and an
installation of drawings. The BEADS works on display are inspired by
copy-and-paste image processing of pixels on computer monitors, but
attempt to reproduce the process with physical sculpture. Transcoding
images and perceptions between the real and virtual, the digital and
analog results in blurred locations, elicits images that are more
abstract, and produces new sensations. In his installation of drawings
featuring clusters of ink dots, the dots act as elements that combine to
form the composition, bestowing depth and expanding the images. The
visual space quietly stimulates our bodily senses, as if we were
observers at the foundations of creativity itself. The abstractness and
sensations of this space make the exhibit a link between the other
categories of Nawa's works.
"Synthesis" is an excellent opportunity to see Kohei Nawa's current
works. The artist's reputation is rapidly growing, and a significant
solo exhibition has been scheduled for June 2011 at the Museum of
Contemporary Art Tokyo.
www.scaithebathhouse.com |
