Interview featured in BRUTUS “An art experience unlike anything before at EUGENE STUDIO/Eugene Kangawa’s exhibition.”
EUGENE STUDIO is the artist studio of Eugene Kangawa, born in 1989 in the United States. Kangawa has been active internationally since his early twenties, which was quite early for an artist, as his installation work presented at his graduation project at an art university was highly acclaimed.
His works, which are based on his multifaceted insights, including his experience in artificial intelligence research, are unique. In addition, a large-scale solo exhibition held at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo in 2021-22 attracted much attention for its beautiful worldview, and there was a wait of several hours to enter the museum. The fact that he was the youngest artist to hold a solo exhibition at the museum also attracted a great deal of attention.
Let us start with Kangawa’s representative works. Goldrain, which he says is “based on the image of creation,” is a work in which particles of gold and silver powder rain down incessantly from overhead.
“When I first exhibited it in Paris, I limited the duration to about an hour, but now, when it is exhibited at a museum, I can keep it running as long as the venue is open,” he says. The sparkling particles spin endlessly through time, evoking a cycle of life and death. One is drawn in by the delicacy and at the same time the power of the work.