Kohei Nawa

Kohei NAWA (b. 1975) presents a multilateral work based on his diverse practice, which examines the relationship between nature and artificiality, paying attention to the association between the individual and the whole. In the world of the artist, organic forms invariably become stylized and artificial, displaying the parts accumulated together as a whole, like cells, creating complex and dynamic structures. The series of sculptures entitled PixCell (2002–), a combination of the unit ‘Pixel’ that represents the accuracy of the image in the digital era and ‘Cell’ that refers to biological cells, highlights phenomenological questions about the nature of the object. The artist dismantles and combines color, texture, and shape using various materials such as carbon, silicon, crystal, gold, and aluminum. NAWA has also continuously worked with highly viscous liquids as both subject and medium. Among these, Ether (2012–) is a sculptural series realized through 3D modeling of various moments that occur as a liquid droplet falls and hits the floor. This exploration of the relationship between liquid and gravity is further extended in the painting series Direction (2012–), in which canvases are installed at an angle of approximately 15 degrees, allowing ink pigment to flow naturally from the upper edge, making the effects of time and gravity visible. The series VESSEL (2016–) was made as part of a performance of the same title, in collaboration with choreographer Damien JALET (b. 1976). Expanding from material to surface, from surface to form, and from form to space, VESSEL also presents NAWA’s persistent endeavor of nearly twenty years in transcending genre limitations of performance, dance, theater, sound, and video, in addition to exploring the potentials of media. Figure sculptures that capture the piercing intensity of the human body, and music which fills and condenses the air around the stage, enliven new sensation in the viewer, crossing the limits of cognition and presenting an experience that traverses the boundaries of reason and perception. Kohei NAWA was born in Osaka, Japan in 1975. He received his BFA in 1998, MFA in 2000, and PhD in 2003, majoring in sculpture at Kyoto City University of Arts, Kyoto, Japan. He has held solo exhibitions at prestigious art institutions including SCAI THE BATHHOUSE (Tokyo, Japan, 2025; 2021; 2018; 2015; 2010), Galerie Vera Munro (Hamburg, Germany, 2024; 2009), ARARIO GALLERY SHANGHAI (Shanghai, China, 2022; 2017; 2015), Pace Gallery (New York; Palo Alto, US, 2022), Louvre Museum (Paris, France, 2018), Kirhishima Open-Air Museum (Kagoshima, Japan, 2013), ARARIO GALLERY CHEONAN (Cheonan, Korea, 2013; 2012), Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan, 2011), Joan Miro Foundation (Barcelona, Spain, 2008), Ierimonti Gallery (Milano, Italy, 2007), and more. He has participated in group exhibitions at the Pace Gallery (Tokyo, Japan, 2024), Queensland Gallery of Modern Art (Queensland, Australia, 2024), Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan, 2023; 2014), National Gallery of Art (Washington D.C., US, 2019), Centre Pompidou-Metz(Metz, France, 2017), F-Art House (Okayama, Japan, 2016), ZKM (Karlsruhe, Germany, 2016), La Maison de la Culture du Japon a Paris (Paris, France, 2015), ArtScience Museum (Singapore, 2015), and more. He won the 32nd Kyoto Art Culture Award in 2019, and was selected as the "50 Next Most Collectible Artists" by Art+Auction in 2012. His works are a part of world's leading art institutions’ collections, such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Mori Art Museum, Leeum Museum of Art, and ARARIO Collection. Kohei NAWA is a professor at Kyoto University of the Arts and continues his artistic career as a director of SANDWICH, an art, design, and architectural creation platform.