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“Trans-figure,” Japanese artist Kohei Nawa’s first solo show in the United States (on view through Feb. 25 at Pace Gallery in Palo Alto), consists of sculptures and works on canvas that reflect the artist’s interest in science, digital culture, innovation and sensory experience.
“It’s impossible to not be enchanted by Kohei Nawa’s innovative and beautiful work,” said Pace Palo Alto President Elizabeth Sullivan. “When we presented his work in an exhibition in London in 2015, the response was spectacular and we felt his creative perspective and complex and thoughtful approach to integrating technology throughout his practice would be of particular interest to the Bay Area Community.”
During an interview with the Weekly, Kyoto-born Nawa explained that he did not make art as a child but observed his father, who was a school teacher.
“He taught children how to make toys out of ordinary materials; that was a big influence on me,” he said. Although he went on to gain undergraduate and advanced degrees in sculpture from Kyoto City University, it was a year abroad at the Royal College of Art in London that would have the deepest impact on his work today.
“Before I went to London I had no interest in contemporary art,” he said. “But while I was there in 1998-99, I saw the work of Anthony Gormley, Anish Kapoor and Rachel Whiteread. I loved their work. I got energy from them.” Returning to Japan, Nawa formed a collaborative group named Sandwich. The group, which numbers around 30-40 artists, works in fine art, design and architecture. They are also responsible for assisting in the creation of Nawa’s work, which is usually done in series.
Upon entering Nawa’s Palo Alto exhibition, the viewer encounters two large-scale paintings, both entitled “Direction,” that consist of bold black lines extending down the length of the canvas. They are striking in their stark beauty but even more impressive when the process behind them is explained. Nawa places the canvas at an angle and then applies, via a very controlled pouring process, his own blend of synthetic pigment. There are no preparatory lines, no masking tape but the result is clean, crisp and without a flaw. When asked how he got the lines so straight he responded, “Training.” He’s done hundreds of canvases in this manner.
“I like science, physics and working with chemicals,” he said, adding, “Everything is chemistry; we are chemistry.”
The next space in the gallery is devoted solely to “PixCell-Maral Deer.” It caused quite a buzz at the recent Fog + Art Fair in San Francisco and rightly so; it is unlikely that you have ever seen anything like it before. Nawa obtained a full-scale, taxidermied deer (revered as a sacred animal by Shinto gods) on the internet and then covered it with crystal glass beads of varying sizes. It is bright and shiny, and the urge to touch it is incredibly tempting.
Nawa explained that the piece is a combination of nature and technology (he devised the compound for the beads) and “symbolizes the information age.” He said that we all have lenses that we use to observe the world and the glass beads, like a camera lens, provide us with the information we need. “We see the object through the lens,” he said, “but we are removed and at a distance.” And as for touching the beads, Nawa smiled and said, “I would like it if people could touch it. When it was shown in Italy, the people there kissed it.” (Disclaimer: Don’t even think about it.)
A curtained wall leads visitors into the next space, where a very large display of disparate white objects is illuminated by overhead light projectors, which cycle through the primary colors. Titled “Villus,” the various objects, which included a hand grenade, a sculpture of the Buddha, a Mickey Mouse figure and a golfer in mid-swing, were obtained by means of “putting a key word in a computer program and getting these random objects,” he said. Nawa then coated the objects with a polyurethane foam of his own design. The result is a pebbly surface, “villi,” that dries very hard. While there is a lot of science going on here (“The foam increases volume in a manner that evokes uncontrolled cellular division”), the objects themselves are quite whimsical. The continually changing colors in the objects’ shadows make for an ethereal experience, which is fitting as Nawa explained, “Transfiguration has a religious meaning.”
Further back in the gallery, visitors are welcome to wander around the staff work space, where more examples of Nawa’s work, including other PixCells (a penguin, a duckling and Pinocchio) are installed.
Nawa, who enjoys an international market for his work, is in the process of creating a large-scale sculpture in gold leaf that will be displayed under the glass pyramid of the Louvre Museum in July. He expressed a fascination for Silicon Valley, Stanford University and all the technological innovations the area has spawned. His favorite place to visit? Not surprisingly, The Computer History Museum in Mountain View.
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Freelance writer Sheryl Nonnenberg can be emailed at nonnebrg@aol.com
What: Kohei Nawa exhibit at Pace Gallery.
Where: 229 Hamilton Ave., Palo Alto.
When: Through Feb. 25, Tuesday-Saturday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Info: Go to Pace Gallery.
