KOHEI NAWA

Kohei Nawa's solo exhibition "Photon Camp" will be held at Pace Gallery in Los Angeles, USA. This marks Nawa's first solo show in Los Angeles, this presentation will bring together 20 new works from two of his iconic sculptural series—PixCell and Prism—creating a cohesive environment in which his sculptures engage directly with the architecture of the gallery’s main exhibition space.

Drawing out the unique properties of various traditional and unconventional materials across varied fields such as paintings, sculptures, installations, architecture and performance, Nawa explores nuanced relationships between physical and virtual spaces, synthetic and natural forces, and the individual and the collective. Intrinsic to his practice is a rigorous engagement with technologies that traverse eras and cultures, particularly information technologies. Visual distortions and transformations cut across his artworks, encouraging viewers to consider the ways that digital technologies impact their relationship to and experience of the physical world.

This exhibition foregrounds his expansive investigations of perceptual and sensory phenomena and reflects new directions in his recent work. For Nawa, an artwork is not a static entity fixed by a single interpretation. Rather, it is a phenomenological event that occurs when swarms of photons momentarily and miraculously come together. His first installation comprising both his PixCell and Prism series—which he has developed continuously over the course of his career—explores tensions between the natural and the artificial, the real and the fictional, and the sacred and the profane.

Memories of disaster—including the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake and the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake—have also profoundly shaped Nawa’s worldview and artistic practice as well as his vision for "Photon Camp." Nawa understands the works in his installation at Pace as "drifting objects." Japan has welcomed drifting objects carried on the sea throughout its history, forging its culture through processes of mixture and hybridization. Within the global circulation of matter, drifting objects wander, linger, and arrive in unintended places. For Nawa, they symbolize the cyclical nature of civilization on a planetary scale. Notions of fluctuation and impermanence cut across his work, inviting meditations on cycles of destruction and regeneration.

Nawa’s new PixCell and Prism works reflect his enduring engagement with the history of Surrealism. Incorporating taxidermized animals and found objects he has collected from different places and during various periods of his life, these sculptures juxtapose new technologies and modes of making with analogue materials. In his celebrated PixCell works, which he began producing 25 years ago, Nawa covers the surfaces of objects with transparent spheres, or "cells," to distort viewers’ perceptions of the forms beneath. With his Prism works, he houses objects inside transparent boxes, which fragment and transform the appearance of their contents depending on the viewer’s position. Works in both series pose questions about the nature of reality through visuo-tactile experience.

A large-scale, freestanding sculpture titled PixCell-Elk#3, which takes a taxidermized elk as its motif, is the centerpiece of Nawa’s presentation at the gallery. Other works surround the elk—a symbol of the majesty of the natural world—to create a cohesive environment, with some displayed atop pedestals and others situated on the floor or mounted on walls. Casting its gaze beyond the viewer, into the void, the elk presides over the artist’s installation, which unfolds through space along the elk’s axis. Together, these sculptures form a holistic, dynamic installation that pushes the boundary between artifice and nature.

 

Exhibition Period:  11 April (Sat) - 6 June (Sat), 2026
Opening Hours: 10:00 - 18:00
Closed: Mondays, Sundays
Venue: Pace Gallery
1201 South La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles, US

 

photo: Nobutada Omote

 

Photon Camp

We are delighted to announce the 2026 European tour of Planet [wanderer], a performance work by Damien Jalet and Kohei Nawa.

The stage opens with a striking image: a black mass crouching in total darkness as shimmering stardust begins to fall upon it. Tiny particles drifting endlessly through the cosmos over vast spans of time and space accumulate to form the surface of a planet. Awakened upon this terrain, the dancers gradually transform in response to rain, mist, and light, and eventually begin to move. What emerges is a vision of life itself—oscillating between power and fragility, harmony and resistance, extinction and evolution.

Planet [wanderer] is part of a trilogy of collaborations that began with VESSEL (2016). While VESSEL drew on the underworld (Yomi no Kuni) from Japan’s oldest chronicle, Kojiki, and the subsequent film Mist evoked the heavenly realm (Takamagahara), Planet [wanderer] focuses on the third world, Ashihara no Nakatsukuni—the earthly realm where we live. “Wanderer,” part of the title, echoes the original Greek meaning of “planet”—“a wandering body.”

On this planet—subject to gravity and extreme environmental shifts—the dancers’ bodies sway and drift like reeds, wandering through an ever-changing landscape. Within their movement unfolds both the sense of rootlessness that defines our unstable age and the vitality of life that resists it.

...
◼︎Brussels, Belgium
Date / Time: February 11 (Wed), 2026 | 19:15 -
February 12 (Thu), 2026 | 20:15 -
Venue: Théâtre National Wallonie‑Bruxelles
Bd Émile Jacqmain 111-115, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium
website

◼︎Sceaux, France
Date / Time: February 18 (Wed), 2026 | 20:30 -
February 19 (Thu), 2026 | 20:30 -
February 20 (Wed), 2026 | 20:30 -
Venue: Théâtre Les Gémeaux
49 Avenue Georges Clémenceau, 92330 Sceaux, France
website

◼︎Salzburg, Austria
Date / Time: March 30 (Mon), 2026 | 19:00 -
Venue: Haus für Mozart
Haus für Mozart, Hofstallgasse 1, 5020 Salzburg, Austria
website

◼︎Seoul, Korea
Date / Time: June 25 (Thu), 2026 | 19:30 -
June 26 (Fri), 2026 | 19:30 -
Venue: GS Arts Center
508, Nonhyeon-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea
website / tickets
...

Concept and Choreography: Damien Jalet
Concept and Scenography: Kohei Nawa

Music: Tim Hecker
Lighting: Yukiko Yoshimoto
Costumes: Sruli Recht
Sound Design Collaboration: Xavier Jacquot
Assistant to the Choreography: Alexandra Hoàng Gilbert
Outside Eye: Catalina Navarrete Hernández
Stage director: Masaya Natsume

Cast: Shawn Ahern, Karima El Amrani, Aimilios Arapoglou, Francesco Ferrari, Vinson Fraley, Christina Guieb, Astrid Sweeney, Ema Yuasa

photo: Yoshikazu Inoue

 

Planet [wanderer]

We are pleased to announce the 2026 European tour of Mirage, a performance piece conceived by Damien Jalet and Kohei Nawa.

This piece marks the fourth collaboration between Jalet and Nawa, whose creative partnership has deepened over more than a decade. Exploring the theme of the ceaseless transformation of life, the work is brought to life together with a diverse group of creators, including Thomas Bangalter (formerly of Daft Punk).

The two artists draw particular inspiration from optical phenomena such as mirages and fata morganas, which appear under specific atmospheric conditions due to the refraction of light. Through these, they portray individuals wandering across deserts—metaphors for harsh environments—searching for themselves and the shifting landscapes they envision.

On a stage reminiscent of a gently moving yet unstoppable incoming wave or a vast sand dune, the dancers’ bodies interact with various materials—water, mist, glitter. These elements ultimately merge, catalyzed by multifaceted light effects, into a single phenomenon that envelops the entire space.

...
◼︎Lyon, France
Date / Time: January 14 (Wed), 2026 | 19:30 -
January 15 (Thu), 2026 | 20:30 -
January 16 (Fri), 2026 | 20:00 -
January 17 (Sat), 2026 | 15:00 -
Venue: Maison de la danse
8 avenue Jean Mermoz, 69008 Lyon, France
website

◼︎St. Pölten, Austria
Date / Time: January 24 (Sat), 2026 | 19:30 -
Venue: Festspielhaus St. Pölten
Kulturbezirk 2, 3100 St. Pölten, Austria
website

◼︎Lugano, Switzerland 
Date / Time: January 29 (Thu), 2026 | 20:00 -
January 30 (Fri), 2026 | 20:00 -
Venue: LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura
Piazza Bernardino Luini 6, 6900 Lugano, Switzerland
website

◼︎Charleroi, Belgium 
Date / Time: June 4 (Thu), 2026 | 20:00 -
June 5 (Fri), 2026 | 20:00 -
June 6 (Sat), 2026 | 20:00 -
Venue: Charleroi Danse - Les Écuries
Boulevard Pierre Mayence, 65C, 6000 Charleroi, Belgium
website

◼︎Antwerpen, Belgium
Date / Time: June 11 (Thu), 2026 | 20:00 -
June 12 (Fri), 2026 | 20:00 -
June 13 (Sat), 2026 | 20:00 -
June 14 (Sun), 2026 | 15:00 -
Venue: deSingel
Desguinlei 25, 2018 Antwerpen, Belgium
website
...

Concept and Choreography: Damien Jalet
Concept and Scenography: Kohei Nawa
Music: Thomas Bangalter
Lighting Designer: Yukiko Yoshimoto
Costumes Designer: Kunihiko Morinaga (ANREALAGE)
Costumes designing Assistant: Anna Sato (ANREALAGE)
Choreography Advisor: Aimilios Arapoglou
Programming: Ryo Shiraki

Coproduction with Kampnagel-Hambourg, Festspielhaus St. Pölten (AT), Charleroi Danse, Centro de Danza Matadero-Madrid, Maison de la Danse, Lyon – Pôle européen de création

Sponsored by RÉMY ET VERENA BEST, Indosuez Wealth Management, FCO Private Office, Stiftung Usine, Yoshimura Holdings (Mirage [transitory])

*Mirage is a creation based on the project Mirage [transitory], produced and organised by Sandwich Inc, Zero-Ten Inc, Super Massive Global co,. Ltd, sponsored by Yoshimura Holdings and presented in Fukuoka (Japan) in September 2024.

photo: Gregory Batardon

 

Mirage

Kohei Nawa’s sculptural works PixCell-Deer#72 (Aurora) and PixCell-Deer#74 are exhibited at the Pola Museum of Art in Kanagawa as part of the exhibition “SPRING RISING.” This presentation offers a rare opportunity to see two deer-based works from Nawa’s iconic "PixCell" series shown together.

Exhibition Period: until May 31 (Sun), 2026
Opening Hours: 9:30 - 17:00 *Last admission at 16:30.
Closed: -
Venue: Pola Museum of Art
1285 Kozukayama, Sengokuhara, Hakone, Kanagawa 250-0631, Japan

 

SPRING RISING

As part of ARTISTS’ FAIR KYOTO 2026, Kohei Nawa, who serves on the fair’s advisory board, will present his sculptural works in the "AFK Resonance Exhibition," held at the Rinzai Zen head temple Tōfuku-ji Temple.

Exhibition Period: February 21 (Sat) - March 1 (Sun), 2026
Opening Hours: 9:00 - 16:00 *Last admission at 15:30
Venue: Tofuku-ji Temple
15-778, Honmachi, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto 605-0981, Japan

AFK Resonance Exhibition