—The Japan Times / The New York Times (International Edition) writes: “Atelier iii (*Eugene’s Atelier) is not a workshop in the traditional sense, nor a gallery. It is a 700-square-meter archive of ideas and materials, a lens into the mind of a conceptually rigorous contemporary artist.” Around “Eugene Atelier iii”
—The Japan Times / The New York Times (International Edition) writes: “Atelier iii (*Eugene’s Atelier) is not a workshop in the traditional sense, nor a gallery. It is a 700-square-meter archive of ideas and materials, a lens into the mind of a conceptually rigorous contemporary artist.” Around “Eugene Atelier iii”
—The Japan Times / The New York Times (International Edition) writes: “Atelier iii (*Eugene’s Atelier) is not a workshop in the traditional sense, nor a gallery. It is a 700-square-meter archive of ideas and materials, a lens into the mind of a conceptually rigorous contemporary artist.” Around “Eugene Atelier iii”
MOST READ
ATELIER iii Atelier iii, the studio of Eugene Kangawa / EUGENE STUDIO, is located in an area surrounded by low mountains. The atelier occasionally opens to visitors on days when the artist is not present, with a limited number of time slots and groups....
ATELIER iii | INTERVIEW “… One such work is ‘Goldrain,’ an ongoing project Kangawa describes as an exploration of ‘creating new time.’ ...the installation evolves gradually over the years, ensuring it remains in a state of perpetual transformation.”
INTERVIEW Excerpt: “EUGENE STUDIO’s solo exhibition, EUGENE STUDIO After the rainbow, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo attracted large crowds and generated considerable attention.... While occupying a central position in Japanese contemporary art, the studio’s socially engaged initiatives also remain fresh in memory....” (HANATSUBAKI)
ARCHIVE Excerpt: “The photogram emerged as a kind of sketch for these works. As you know, photographic paper is exposed within seconds of light, whereas fading by sunlight can take hundreds of hours. Because the principle is essentially the same, the act of folding photographic paper in the darkroom became a natural continuation of the overall process....” (Whitewall)
NEWS A Chair Designed by Eugene Kangawa, Presented at the V&A Museum, London, and Appearing on the Cover of LDF 2026 First Look. A chair directed by Eugene Kangawa (EUGENE STUDIO) and crafted by Shingama using Seto Sometsuke porcelain...
ARCHIVE
Solo Exhibition “EUGENE STUDIO After the rainbow” at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, operated by the Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture.
CATALOG: EUGENE I, II, III The catalogue for the collection exhibition is now available as a three-volume set. One volume includes an extensive selection of photographs showing Goldrain from various angles and at different times. Another presents the Rainbow Paintings at close to their actual size. The third features monochrome and green works from Light and shadow inside me.
ABOUT
Eugene’s studio, Atelier iii, is located near Tokyo, where a team of specialists from a range of fields works together.
Set amid lush greenery, the studio was designed by Eugene and the team, who also carried out much of the renovation themselves.
ABOUT
Eugene Kangawa is known for abstract painting and installations centered on themes of human existence,time, and history. His exhibitions and projects include EUGENESTUDIO The New Sea / After the Rainbow (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2021–22); de-sport: (21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa); 1/2 century later. (Shiseido Gallery,Tokyo); and 89+ (Serpentine Galleries, London), among others. Born in the United States in 1989.
Following the resonance of his solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, and through thewish, proposal, and support of collectors with ties to Asia and ASEAN, the exhibition has developed into Emme,a permanent museum in Bali dedicated to the works of Eugene Kangawa / EUGENE STUDIO. Situated on aone-hectare site near Bali’s UNESCO World Heritage cultural landscape, Emme is now being established andbuilt under the care of a local operating body and a local public-interest foundation. The museum isscheduled for completion in 2026.
Hisshort art film has also been selected for—and received awards at—several international film festivals,including the Rhode Island International Film Festival, the Brooklyn FilmFestival, and the Pan African Film Festival.
He currently works near Tokyo at Atelier iii—a lush studio designed andDIY-built by the artist and his team—together with a diverse, cross-disciplinary staff.
OFFICIAL INTERVIEWS & ARTICLES
EXCERPTS
(Selected excerpts)
“Kangawa’s art and its spaces ask us to pause, consider the passage of time and the weight of ourpresence in it.”
“… With ‘After the Rainbow,’ his 2021 solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Kangawareached a new milestone. At 32, he was the youngest artist ever to hold a solo exhibition at the museum.Exploring the possibilities of coexistence—between humanity and nature, the tangible and theimagined—the exhibition established Kangawa as a voice of piercing lucidity in a fragmented era.”
“… At Atelier iii (*Eugene’s Atelier), visitors encounter a spacious, meticulously curated mini museumshowcasing several of the 35-year-old artist’s paintings, installations and sculptures. Beyond thepublic eye, workshop areas are tucked away behind walls, where his ongoing creative process quietlyunfolds.” Read more…
(Selected excerpts)
“… Kangawa’s art and its spaces ask us to pause, consider the passage of time and the weight of ourpresence in it.”
“The 3,000 sq metre Eugene Museum, designed by Andra Matin, will have more than 15 permanent works bycontemporary artist Eugene Kangawa (born 1989). These range from paintings to immersiveinstallations.
In 2021, Kangawa was the youngest artist to have a solo show at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo,despite not having traditional gallery representation.” Read more…
(Selected excerpts)
“Now, art pieces created by team lab, takram, Rhizomatiks, and The Eugene attract worldwide attention.These next-gen companies ask the public a new sense of value by integrating Japanese unique conceptand advanced technology. ”
Daisuke Miyatsu
Art collector and critic. President of Yokohama University of Art and Design; member of the Art BaselGlobal Patrons Council; board member of the Mori Art Museum; formerly Visiting Professor at KyotoUniversity of Art and Design. Since 1994 he has continued to collect artworks while working in thecorporate sector, and even built his private residence in collaboration with artists—activities thathave been widely profiled both in Japan and abroad.Born in Tokyo in 1963.
(Selected excerpts)
“... ‘The idea that all things, by the very fact of their existence, simultaneously possess both lightand shadow — countless fronts and backs — is central to who I am and my practice,’ Kangawa explains todesignboom. ‘My goal was to create a work of art that embodies and enacts this coexistence.’ Theseries was born from what he describes as a moment of revelation. ‘It all began one winter day when Ifound a sun-faded box at home. In that moment, everything connected, and the idea grew into theseworks,’ he tells us.”
“... For Kangawa, the collaboration resonates deeply with Issey Miyake’s human-centered designphilosophy. ‘Issey Miyake’s philosophy connects closely with my own work, particularly in exploringexistence,’ he says. ‘Light and shadow inside me began as a meditation on loss, peace, and nature—theidea that light can be both beautiful and fearsome. In Japanese sensibility and history, light hasalways carried this duality. Some people even say the works evoke associations with the nuclear.’”
(Selected excerpts)
*About Image/Imagine#1 man (sculpture, 2021)
“… a work that undoubtedly exists, yet can never be seen; its figure of ‘imagination’ multiplies intoas many forms as there are viewers. As the artist remarks—‘this work carries the exhibition’s hiddenside’—what ultimately underpins the exhibition is the amplitude and depth of our imagination.
What is presented here is only a part of the whole. Even so, the diverse modes of expression in EUGENESTUDIO’s work in this exhibition stimulate our awareness from multiple angles and lead us to insightswe have not previously had. If the sea is the origin of life, then the consciousness nourished by thisexhibition—serving as a source of new ideas and shaping how the world might be—may itself be called a‘new sea.’”
(Selected excerpts)
“THE EUGENE Studio’s White Painting series […] transforming the canvases into nomadic shrines to loveand memory… . White Painting series returns the monochrome to its iconic if uncertain place between aportal and a thing.”
At least in the American context, the battle today appears won by the latter position, thus cementingthe monochrome within its materialist aspect. But what does it mean to go in the other direction—fromRodchenko to Malevich? Or perhaps better still, to linger on the border between the two, therebyrendering painting’s transcendental promises as transportive and projected, as staunchly material andemerging from an affectively constituted network? These questions inform the complexity of THE EUGENEStudio’s White Painting (2017)—a trio of white, seemingly simple monochromes.
David Geers
David Geers is an art critic who lives and works in New York. His writing has appeared in October,Frieze, Fillip, BOMB, The Brooklyn Rail, The Third Rail Quarterly, among other publications. Oftenfocusing on the convergence of painting, politics and technology, his recent works include:“Neo-Modern,” October No. 139 (Winter 2012), “Formal Affairs,” Frieze, No. 169 (March 2015) and “Actsof Recognition,” Frieze, No. 191 (November-December 2017).
Light and shadow inside me
2021–, Aqueous dye on paper, faded by exposure to sunlight
Everything Shine Series (Drawing series)
2021–, Oil, wax oil pastel, gouache, grease pencil on brass / wood
Beyond good and evil, make way toward the wasteland.
2017, Ceramic, steel, wood, glass, ash, others
This is also everything of this world
2021, Tin
Our dreams
2021, Video installation
Japan, 2020–
Atelier iii, the studio of Eugene Kangawa / EUGENE STUDIO, is located in an area surrounded by low mountains. Largely designed and DIY-built by the artist and his team, the approximately 700-square-meter atelier encompasses a range of environments, from rooms filled with natural light to a darkroom. Previously used porcelain tiles and lighting fixtures, along with leftover wood and metal, have been reused and reworked throughout the space. Many of its elements—including doors, furniture, and handles—were also made by the studio. Works in progress, works intended for collections, materials, and other objects are kept throughout the atelier.
The atelier occasionally opens to visitors on days when the artist is not present, with a limited number of time slots and groups. (Address undisclosed; approximately one hour by car from central Tokyo. Please see the link or Instagram for reservation details. Visits from educational institutions and other organizations can also be arranged.)
—The Japan Times / The New York Times (International Edition) writes: “Atelier iii is not a workshop in the traditional sense, nor a gallery. It is a 700-square-meter archive of ideas and materials, a lens into the mind of a conceptually rigorous contemporary artist.” Eugene Atelier iii
“About an hour from central Tokyo by limited express train, the view outside the window grows steadily greener as the journey continues. In a region surrounded by abundant greenery and satoyama landscapes, with a long history of organic farming, the atelier of Eugene Studio / Eugene Kangawa stands across from a woodworking furniture factory.” Excerpt: Hanatsubaki
“Kangawa’s works are not presented in isolation. Instead, they form part of a broader narrative encompassing impermanence, duality, and the delicate relationship between human beings and the environments they inhabit.”
Excerpt: The Japan Times / The New York Times (International Edition)Light and shadow inside me, 2022
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
“The Global Journey of a Light-Born Work
weaving light: eugene kangawa and A-POC ABLE ISSEY MIYAKE turn photograms into fabric—‘Light and shadow inside me’ is a body of work made entirely through light.” Excerpt: designboom (Italy)
“The Global Journey of a Light-Born Work
weaving light: eugene kangawa and A-POC ABLE ISSEY MIYAKE turn photograms into fabric—‘Light and shadow inside me’ is a body of work made entirely through light.” Excerpt: designboom (Italy)
“What struck me most was the idea that ‘light itself becomes a material, generating new aesthetic values through the passage of time.’ Sunlight or exposure in a darkroom leaves traces on paper, where chance and inevitability intertwine with the dual nature of light and shadow inherent in all things.”
Excerpt: Whitewall (US)
—From an interview with Yoshiyuki Miyamae, designer at A-POC ABLE ISSEY MIYAKE.
“Eugene Kangawa moves fluidly across different media—two-dimensional works, monumental installations, sculptures, and video—creating forms of expression that resonate with both art history and philosophy while embodying a highly refined contemporary aesthetic. His works, at once abstract and powerfully evocative, engage both intellect and sensibility.”
Original Article in French
“This philosophy has arisen from many experiences in my life—both social and personal. From the state of the world, to the death of my mother, to the yearning for peace, and to encounters with nature—these have all shaped the way I have come to understand it.”
Excerpt: Whitewall (US)
—Eugene Kangawa
ARCHIVE
Organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, operated by the Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture.
An installation of an endless repetition of the ocean horizon. Image / Imagine #1 man, a sculpture that can only be seen with reservations, was made entirely by hand in total darkness and exhibited in a room of total darkness. “No one has ever seen it, not even the artist. And it will be that way forever.“
An oil painting with gradations of pale rainbow colors made up of countless points. A ray of golden rain never seen before.
*This page includes a part of the archived pages of EUGENE STUDIO After the rainbow, Nov 22, 2021-Feb 23, 2022 (Organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, operated by the Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture).
—The Japan Times / The New York Times (International Edition), 2025 writes: “… With ‘After the Rainbow,’ his 2021 solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Kangawa reached a new milestone. At 32, he was the youngest artist ever to hold a solo exhibition at the museum. Exploring the possibilities of coexistence—between humanity and nature, the tangible and the imagined—the exhibition established Kangawa as a voice of piercing lucidity in a fragmented era.”
Goldrain, 2019
Particle of gold and silver leaf
White Painting series, 2017
Canvas
White Painting series
For a certain family, 2019
Canvas
Rainbow Painting series, 2021
Oil on canvas
Rainbow Painting series, 2021
Oil on canvas
Everything Shines series (Sketch/Drawing), 2021
Oil on metal
Light and shadow inside me, 2021
Aqueous dye on paper, faded by exposure to sunlight
This is also everything of this world, 2021
Tin
Regrading of stories, 2021
Glass, Grisaille, mud, enamel on canvas
Light and shadow inside me
03.03-04.06 in my house, in Tokyo, 2021
Aqueous dye on paper, faded by exposure to sunlight
Beyond good and evil, make way toward the wasteland., 2017
Ceramic, steel, wood, glass, ash, others
Beyond good and evil, make way toward the wasteland., 2017
Ceramic, steel, wood, glass, ash, others
Goldrain, 2019
Particle of gold and silver leaf
Goldrain, 2019
Particle of gold and silver leaf
Image / Imagine #1 man, 2021
Statue
A few commons(sky looked up by 36 people at one time), 2021
Inkjet print
(Operated by a Local Public-Interest Foundation and a Local Corporation)
Initiated by Collectors with Ties to Indonesia, ASEAN, and the Wider Asian Region; Scheduled for Completion in 2026
Permanent Collection Centered on Works by Eugene Kangawa / EUGENE STUDIO
With the proposal, support, and initiative of collectors connected to Asia and Indonesia, the solo exhibition The New Sea / After the Rainbow (held at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo in 2021–22) has since evolved into Emme, a permanent museum dedicated to the works of Eugene Kangawa / EUGENE STUDIO. Emme’s development and operations are independently managed in Indonesia by Yayasan Emmerald for Earth, an Indonesian public-interest foundation, and Desa Emmerald. Through the public-interest foundation, a portion of the museum’s revenue will be allocated to environmental conservation activities and educational programs.
EUGENE STUDIO expresses its deep gratitude to all those who proposed and realized a concrete plan—far beyond anything the Studio could have imagined—to preserve these works in a permanent home for future generations. The Studio also hopes that the museum will make a meaningful contribution to the local community. EUGENE STUDIO creates the artworks and contributes to the museum’s conceptual development. The museum’s architecture is being developed through dialogue between Andra Matin and Eugene Kangawa / EUGENE STUDIO. Motivated by a wish to carry the experience of the exhibition forward to future generations, the collectors and the community formed around the initiative chose a site of fallow rice fields for the museum, with the architecture designed around the existing trees to preserve them.
The museum is currently under construction in Bali, in a verdant setting at the foot of a UNESCO World Heritage area with which the collectors have close ties. Emme’s main building, with a total floor area of approximately 3,000 square meters, is scheduled for completion in 2026.
For employment opportunities at Emme, please contact the museum directly or visit website, the employment platform of Indonesia’s Ministry of Manpower. Recruitment is managed independently by Emme’s Indonesian operating organizations. Eugene Kangawa / EUGENE STUDIO is not involved in the museum’s recruitment. Thank you for your interest.
Courtesy of Emme
Artworks in the museum and spatial concept: © Eugene Kangawa / EUGENE STUDIO
Architecture by Andra Matin
VISUAL INDEX
RECENT NEWS
RECENT NEWS
MAY 18 2026
Eugene Kangawa (Eugene Studio) will speak at an international symposium at The University of Tokyo.
Organized by: The Advanced Art and Design Division (Field Design), Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo / International Symposium “Craft as Response — Reframing Craft in a Global Context” / Craft x Tech Related Symposium
