Hiroshi Nagao solo exhibition "VACANCIES"

Hiroshi Nagao is a contemporary artist who expresses his unique worldview through collage and acrylic paint based on the concept of "we are the indigenous people of the future."

Nagao, who has been creating collage works based on skateboarding, music, fashion, and graphic design, which he has been familiar with since his student days, moved to Berlin in 2012 and has since been exhibiting his works mainly overseas.

During his time abroad, Nagao began to reexamine his own identity, and he began to think, "We call people who have lived the same way for many years, uninfluenced by changes in the times such as civilization and modernization, indigenous people, but from the perspective of our descendants, who will inherit our lifestyle and culture, perhaps we too could be called the 'indigenous people of the future.'" He also began to wonder, "Isn't there something that must not be lost, or a strength, that resides in the things that such indigenous people have left behind over generations?" He also began to think, "What can we, and should we, leave behind for our descendants as the 'indigenous people of the future'?"
Nagao has visited indigenous peoples around the world, including Mexico, Namibia, Mongolia, and India, where he has conducted fieldwork and residency projects. By combining the colors and decorations he encountered there with his own expression in the creation of his works, he presents "something that must not be lost" that transcends the timeline and borders of the past and present. Nagao's vibrant worldview, colored with vivid colors and unrestrained images, is a representation of the "bright future" he hopes for.

However, in Japan, many festivals that have continued for generations have been forced to be canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while events that are expected to bring in large amounts of revenue have been held. In modern society, local traditional events that should be a source of spiritual comfort have been completely pushed aside. In this exhibition, Nagao will display works that feature motifs of festive energy that has been lost from our daily lives (=VACANCY), such as demons, tengu, and lion dances that appear in festivals and rituals that have continued since ancient times, and ask us Japanese living in the modern age, as the "indigenous people of the future," "what is it that we must not lose?"

This exhibition supports the concept of Shibuya Fashion Week Spring 2022, which asks, "In the midst of the bewildering changes in the world, what relationships have remained unchanged and what have changed dramatically? The perceptions, sensibilities, and values that these relationships bring about. By confronting these things anew, what will be born here in Shibuya?" and will be held as a linked project.

Be sure to check out Nagao Hiroshi's solo exhibition "VACANCIES," the first in a series of exhibitions curated by ONBEAT, a bilingual art information magazine that takes a fresh look at Japanese art and culture and shares its appeal with the world, at YUGEN Gallery.