Water, sand, mirrors
Right: White Painting series, 2017
Canvas, 160 × 160 cm, Private collection
Installation view: Solo exhibition EUGENE STUDIO After the rainbow
at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, November 2021–February 2022.
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Viewable archive: EUGENE STUDIO After the rainbow
at Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (Nov. 2021–Feb. 2022)
An installation of an endless repetition of the horizon line of the pristine ocean/stratum. The entire process was done by hand in complete darkness, a work of a human statue that will never be seen for eternity. (Visitors could also touch this sculpture one at a time in a room of complete darkness.) A ray of golden rain. An 8-meter oil painting by brush, in which small “groups of figures” form a pale rainbow gradation.
Eugene Kangawa’s EUGENE STUDIO After the rainbow made him the youngest artist ever to have a solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo.
Announcement of the permanent museum Eugene Museum in Bali (scheduled to open to the public in 2026).
We are pleased to inform you that, with the invaluable efforts and proposals from our supporters across various regions, the permanent museum “Eugene Museum in Bali,” dedicated to the works of Eugene Kangawa/Eugene Studio, will be constructed in Bali, Indonesia. Construction is scheduled to commence this summer.
EUGENE STUDIO Studio/Atelier iii
EUGENE STUDIO / Eugene Kangawa’s largest, self-built atelier/studio is surrounded by beautiful water and low mountains. The studio was designed by the artist himself in a woodworking warehouse where doors were once made. Almost all the doors, handles, and walls were made in the studio. In the space of approximately 700 square meters/7,500 square feet, works scheduled to be collected, works from the artist’s collection, and works that have not yet been exhibited are installed. About a 1-hour drive from central Tokyo.
Publish
Catalog: Eugene i, ii, iii
EUGENE iii Goldrain
EUGENE ii Rainbow & White (tentative)
EUGENE i Image/imagine 想像 & Light and shadow inside me
Catalog: EUGENE STUDIO After the rainbow Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Official booklet by Bijutsu Techo and Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Catalog: special edition 1/2 Century later. Shiseido Gallery, 2017
Light and shadow inside me with the sun, 2021–
Aqueous dye on paper
This series features gradations created by allowing bright green water-based dye to fade in a very specific way.
First, the dye is applied to a sheet of paper. The sheet is then folded into a prism, which is exposed to the sun over a period of weeks or months. The faces on the prism that receive the most sunlight fade dramatically, while those that remained largely in shadow remain a vivid green. The paper is then unfolded to reveal the finished gradation.
As the title hints, it is the prisms themselves that create the shadows, but the factors that cause the resulting gradations are not easy to imagine when the sheet of paper is unfolded and displayed as a flat work. This series is a pointed reminder that our way of comprehending existence unavoidably becomes multifaceted through environment and circumstance.
Quoted from a handout of “EUGENE STUDIO After the rainbow” (by Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2021)
White Painting series, 2017–
Canvas
White Painting is only the collective name for the series, as each piece is titled with the names of the people who kissed the canvases—for instance, the names of about a hundred people.
There are 2 series of this work; one was done by calling out to people on the street in cities around the world (USA, Mexico, Italy, Taiwan...) and the other within a specific community unit such as “a certain family”.
For a certain family series (2017–)
The small For a certain family series (33.3 × 33.3 cm), works done within the community unit of a specific family, began with the creation of a piece for the family of a friend of his.
Portraits on consciousness, timeless portrait-like works are now in possession of more than one family.
The title of the work will officially be “a series of names of all the family members”. For example, “Anna, Ryo, Erika”.
And if there are more family members—for example, they have children—the title of the work would also change. There is flexibility in the concept of family.
This is the smallest form of commission work, but it is also a commission work that lasts forever.
“— THE EUGENE Studio’s White Painting series […] transforming the canvases into nomadic shrines to love and memory… White Painting series returns the monochrome to its iconic if uncertain place between a portal and a thing.”
From “Passion in Monochrome” (2018)
by David Gears, an art critic who contributes his writing to October magazine and other publications.
Read full story
Goldrain, 2019
Particles of gold and silver silently and endlessly pour down. This sculpture moves in a phenomenal way—entirely different from water or dust. It has the same silhouette but never looks the same. The work was exhibited in natural light in Paris and darkness at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo.
“...The serene space that leads to deep contemplation of things that exist there but is not visible, unpredictable things that cannot be controlled by human knowledge, is oblivious to time and a sight to behold.”
by Web Taiyo
〈The fertile imaginative possibilities presented by the serene space〉
Read full story
Image/Imagine #1 man, 2021
Statue
“Sculptural work seen by reservation only. This sculpture of a ‘person’ created by hand is a sculptural work that was created ‘in a state of complete darkness, where the statue is not visible at all during the entire process,’ and ‘neither the artist himself nor anyone else’ has ever seen it. Meaning, it is a sculptural work that ‘no one in this world has ever seen before’.
One by one, in a room of total darkness, each visitor was able to touch the actual statue. The substantial sculptural work accompanied by the intense experience attracted a great deal of attention, with reservations required and queues sometimes forming even before opening time. (The installation also took place in the dark. In other words, it is ‘a statue that no one has seen, nor will be able to see.’ No one involved in the museum was informed of the size or materials used. The title of the work in Japanese is ‘Souzou [which means imagine/Imagination]’ [in Japanese Kanji it means ‘[in your head] think of the statue’]).”
Highlight & Thesis
- EUGENE STUDIO After the rainbow at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (November 2021–February 2022)
- 想像 #1 man / Image/Imagine #1 man
- White Painting series / Thesis “Passion in Monochrome” by David Geers (Art critic)
- Light and shadow inside me (Gelatin silver print [photogram])
- Light and shadow inside me (Aqueous dye on paper)
- Rainbow Painting series
- Playset & Park “PLAY EARTH PARK” (April–May, July–August 2022)
- Beyond good and evil, make way toward the wasteland. / Thesis “1/2 Century later.―In the case of conceptual art” by Arata Hasegawa (Independent curator)
- 海庭 / ritical
- Goldrain
- Everything shines (Draiwing series)
- de-sport at 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa / Mr. Tagis room & dream
- 漆黒能 (EN: Pitch darkness-noh) at The National Art Center, Tokyo
- Regrading of stories
- Our dreams
- from the future
- Agricutural Revolution 3.0
- More +
Eugene Kangawa /
EUGENE STUDIO
Eugene Kangawa (寒川裕人) is a Japanese contemporary artist born in the United States in 1989.
Known for his abstract, large-scale paintings and installations, his past exhibitions include New Sea/After the rainbow (2021-2022) at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo →, de-sport (2020) → at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, 1/2 Century later (2017) at the Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo, 89+ Project (2014) at the Serpentine Gallery, among others.
Inspired by the strong response to his solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo–themed around “symbiosis” and the “power of imagination,” and marking him as the youngest artist in the museum’s history to hold such an exhibition–the permanent museum “Eugene Museum in Bali” → is being established through the proposals and dedicated efforts of supporters from various regions. This museum, located on a 1 ha site at the foot of Bali’s UNESCO World Heritage area, will serve as a permanent museum inspired by his exhibition.(It is scheduled to open to the public in 2026.)
Additionally, two of his short films have been selected or awarded at various film festivals, including the Brooklyn Film Festival, Urbanworld Film Festival, Pan African Film Festival, and Houston International Film Festival, among others →. In the past, he was also invited to participate in research and development projects in artificial intelligence, agriculture, biotechnology, and other fields. These early activities were summarized in 2017 in the book The Age of Art × Technology (written by Daisuke Miyatsu, published by Kobunsha Shinsho) as one of the four leading Japanese artists, along with Team Lab and others.
Established in 2016, his studio’s staff, representing a variety of disciplines, work daily to create and conduct research at Atelier iii →, a space located in the lush outskirts of Tokyo, largely designed and built through the DIY efforts of Eugene and his studio staff.
寒川裕人(Eugene Kangawa)は1989年アメリカ生まれの現代美術家。
インスタレーションや絵画を中心に、過去に東京都現代美術館での個展「新しい海 After the Rainbow」(2021–22) → や、金沢21世紀美術館「de-sport:」(2020) →、青森県立美術館「青森EARTH2019: いのち耕す場所」(2019)、資生堂ギャラリー個展「1/2 century later.」(2017)、サーペンタイン・ギャラリー (ロンドン)「89+」(2014)参加のほかコレクション展など多数。
また、「共生」や「想像の力」をテーマとした東京都現代美術館での最年少での個展は、様々な地域の方々からのご提案とご尽力によって、この個展を原型とした常設美術館「ユージーン・ミュージアム・イン・バリ」へと広がり、バリの世界遺産の麓一帯の約1haの敷地にて建設が開始されています。(日本語の詳細はこちら → 2026年一般公開予定)
そのほか、アメリカで発表された短編映画がロードアイランド国際映画祭、パンアフリカン映画祭、ブルックリン国際映画祭、ヒューストン国際映画祭ほか複数の映画祭でオフィシャルセレクションの選出や受賞 → ほか、初期の活動については2017年に『アート×テクノロジーの時代』(宮津大輔著、光文社新書)にて、都市計画やバイオテクノロジー、人工知能などの研究開発への招聘や参加について書かれており、チームラボ等とともにその分野において日本を代表する四つのアーティストとして著されています。
2016年に設立されたスタジオでは、様々な分野のスタッフが、緑豊かな東京近郊にて大部分が寒川とスタジオスタッフの設計とDIYで作られた「Atelier iii」にて、日々制作やリサーチを行っています。
EUGENE STUDIO / Eugene Kangawa