Mirus Gallery is excited to present Japanese artist Yoh Nagao and his latest exhibition, Genealogy. This is his first solo exhibition in the United States. Genealogy opens Friday, May 3, from 7-10pm and is on display through June 1, 2019.
In many developed countries, we are constantly being controlled by media and information, and human folly, conflict, discrimination, resource exploitation, and environmental destruction are unstoppably getting worse. Nonetheless, even in this modern era, there are still many people that are uninfluenced by modernization and civilization who we call indigenous people. However, in hundreds of years, we will become the indigenous people to our future descendants. Given that our lives and cultures are on an extended line that has been inherited from our ancestors, we have to ask ourselves: What could we leave for our descendants?
Many indigenous people of the world have lived richly and simply with very limited resources and Nagao assumes that there is an inventive strength our ancestors developed and cultivated for over several hundred years, even before the invention of language. Records of it were printed on the DNA and passed down to our generation. Therefore, many elements of their folkloric decoration and color usage are still found in modern culture. Since Nagao combines the elements that these human beings originally possess from the past to the present, he can communicate to people with diverse roots, cultures, and values, while connecting them to each other through his art. Nagao's artistic mission is to inspire this instinctive virtue and enrichment to more people for a brighter future.
Yoh Nagao is a Yokohama-born and Nagoya-raised Japanese pop-artist. He is passionate to pursue his artistic and philosophical theme, "We the future indigenous," by combing paintings and collages in his art pieces. Nagao is one of Japan's leading international artists and since his much-acclaimed solo exhibition in Hong Kong in 2009, his works have been exhibited around the world including Zurich, London, Paris, Berlin, New York, Tokyo, New Delhi Miami, Los Angeles, Mexico City, and Denver. In the international competition, the ARTAQ Urban Art Award presented him with an honorable mention at the Collage division of France. In 2008, his work was exhibited in the famous boutique, Colette, in Paris. And his work also has been selected at UNIQLO Creative Awards (UT GRAND PRIX) in 2005.
In recent years, Nagao has been invited to No Commission hosted by Bacardi USA and hip-hop producer Swizz Beatz, made the art visuals for European Asics limited edition sneaker campaign and illustrations for the JRA Chukyo Racecourse annual campaign in 2015. Furthermore, he has been featured in world-renowned magazines such as Dazed and Confused in the UK, Lodown in Germany, and dpi in Taiwan. Nagao has been invited to hold collage workshops in many cities of the world to share his passion and philosophy with future generations. To experience indigenous cultures and gather inspiration and material for his pieces, Nagao conducted fieldwork projects in Mexico, Namibia, and Mongolia, where he visited ethnic groups and learned about their customs. In 2017, he temporarily came back to Japan from Berlin, which had been his base for over five years, and is now working in his atelier in Nagoya city aiming to move to the USA as his step.
