Preparatory room for EUGENE MUSEUM “Emerald” /
EUGENE STUDIO 4th
“Preparatory room for EUGENE MUSEUM” is a preparatory room for the construction of the Eugene Kangawa / EUGENE STUDIO’s museum facility underway in the Asian region. The main museum is under progress with the cooperation of esteemed partners and collectors. We would like to express our sincere respect and gratitude to the team at Jakarta Art Hub, as well as all those who have collaborated with us on this initiative.
The preparatory room, functioning as the epicenter of these creative endeavors, is situated in Jakarta's central Menteng district, the capital of Indonesia, which is just an hour and a half away from Singapore and Bali.
This space occupies the top floor of the Jakarta Art Hub, a building at the heart of the local contemporary art culture and a thriving artistic community.
The preparatory room serves the function of verifying various elements for the forthcoming main museum, which will be much larger than the preparatory room, and it also serves as a viewing space for select artworks.
Reservations for visits can be made through the link provided.
*This space has been planned and organized by YES__pte.ltd, a joint venture founded by Yunosuke Shigesato, who has been blessed with profound connections with Indonesia, in collaboration with EUGENE STUDIO.
Oil on brass
Right: Drawing of Sea Garden (Everything Shines series), 2021
Wax oil pastel, oil on mirror
With a population of approximately 270 million and an average age of around 30 years, Indonesia ranks as the fourth most populous nation globally. The Menteng district in the capital city of Jakarta is known for its confluence of embassies, the National Art Museum, libraries, shopping malls, and is esteemed as a pivotal area for political and economic activities. It is also known for being the district where former U.S. President Barack Obama spent his childhood years.
An annual contemporary art fair held in Jakarta, recognized as one of the fixe most significant art fairs in Southeast Asia, attracts artists, galleries, collectors, and art critics every year from around the world. Since 2009, it has been organized by the fashion and lifestyle magazine Harper’s Bazaar Indonesia.
Oil on brass
Oil on brass
Water, sand, mirrors
EUGENE STUDIO / Eugene Kangawa
Eugene Kangawa (寒川裕人) was born in US in 1989,known for his paintings and large scale installations, his past exhibitions include EUGENE STUDIO After the rainbow (2021-2022) at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, de-sport (2020) at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, 89+ (2014) at the Serpentine Gallery, London etc.
He is the youngest artist ever to hold a solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, which has hosted solo exhibitions by Japanese contemporary artists including Yayoi Kusama, Yoko Ono, and others.This exhibition, even during the COVID-19 pandemic, garnered significant attention with hours-long waits and thousands of people in line.
His early activities were summarized in 2017 in the book The Age of Art × Technology (written by Daisuke Miyatsu, Kobunsha Shinsho) as one of the four leading Japanese artists along with Team Lab and others. In addition, two short films released in the US in 2021 have been selected as Official Selection or won awards at several film festivals, including the Brooklyn Film Festival, Urbanworld Film Festival, Pan African Film Festival, Houston International Film Festival, Rhode Island International Film Festival, and other US Academy Award Qualifiers.
Eugene Kangawa / EUGENE STUDIO Atelier iii, Japan
*The interior of the preparation room, bathed in natural light, is distinct with design elements created by the artist himself, much like Eugene’s larger studio located in the vicinity of Tokyo. (For more information and reservations, please visit this link. We are open to the public when the artist is not present. You can find the latest updates on Instagram.)
The space, which has been renovated with minimal lighting made possible by numerous skylight windows, features several of Eugene’s iconic installations, including a small version of the mirrored sea artwork Critical/Sea Garden and sculptures of human figure titled Imagination, which exist in a completely dark space. Additionally, several of his painting series are on display. The interior and furniture were designed under the supervision of EUGENE.
Center: Drawing of Sea Garden (Everything Shines series), 2021 / Wax oil pastel, oil on mirror
Right: For a certain family (White Painting series), 2019 / Canvas
Wax oil pastel, oil on mirror
15 × 10 cm
Wax oil pastel, oil on mirror
15 × 10 cm
Water, sand, mirrors
Water, sand, mirrors
Wax oil pastel, oil on mirror
15 × 10 cm
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
Oil on brass
The space is situated on the top floor of “Jakarta Art Hub.” Other floors house galleries from various countries, the headquarters of Art Jakarta, cafes, and other amenities. It has progressed to become the central hub for the local contemporary art scene and a thriving community.
“I would like to express my deep appreciation for the collaboration of my friends and partners over the past three years. The power of art is truly intriguing, and to me, art often seems to lead in various directions, connecting fates and taking me to distant places.
I believe that Indonesia is becoming an increasingly potent and sophisticated place. I’ve observed the vitality of life in each part of the country and caught a glimpse of many new possibilities in their lives. I remember being deeply inspired when I first visited the country, experiencing a dynamic momentum that is distinct from America, Europe, or Japan.
In Indonesia, there is a word ‘Nusantara,’ which means archipelago. As a Japanese who grew up in an island, I found this word intriguing.
In the heart of this diverse world, filled with opportunities, I aspire to play a role in sharing and spreading the region’s unique charm with a broader audience.”
—Eugene Kangawa
Photo: Asuka Yazawa © 2023 Eugene Kangawa
Oil on brass
Oil on brass
Works details (reference images), starting from November 2023.
*This series is currently installed in the preparatory room for EUGENE MUSEUM “Emerald” / EUGENE STUDIO.
*The linked items marked “private collection” are currently in the same series, with pieces
different from the images, test pieces, and sizes installed. Please see the photos for
reference only. Some of the photos are from past exhibitions.
*Works details are subject to change.
1Everything Shine Series (Drawing series)
Yellow flower field drawing, 2021
Oil, gouache, grease pencil on brass
305 × 600 cm
Magic hourg, 2021
Oil on brass
26.4 × 35.3 cm
Private Collection
Everything Shine Series (Drawing series), 2021
Oil on brass / Oil, wax oil pastel on brass / Oil, gouache, grease pencil on brass / Brass,
wood
This series of drawings is a rather special kind of “sketch diary” by Eugene Kangawa.
Sometimes he directly sketches “landscapes/objects reflected in mirrors or brass metal,” and
sometimes he enlarges the sketches and drawings based on them. It begins with the act of
drawing what is reflected outside or inside from different angles.
Reflections cause light to appear from behind the paint, the ground and figure are
frequently inverted, and the focus is never fixed.
Oil on brass
26.4 × 35.3 cm
Private Collection
Oil on brass
160.4 × 240.2 cm
Private Collection
Oil on brass
160.4 × 240.2 cm
Private Collection
2Sea Garden 海庭: 1/3 scale model
Water, sand, mirrors
Sea Garden 海庭: 1/3 scale model, 2023
Water, sand, mirrors
The huge space is surrounded by mirrors on all sides, reflecting the waves of water, creating an endless horizon. The natural light from the 19-meter-high ceiling changes the appearance of the space dramatically depending on the weather and time of day.
— If the sea level were to rise, this would be the first place to sink beneath the waves.
I decided to bring the sea into this hall.
The real sea, water, needless to say, tsunamis, and sea level are significant entities, especially for us.
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
In order to permanently archive the large installation Sea Garden, which caused a great response, Eugene himself made sketches of the work on site during the museum’s holidays. The technique of oil paint and pastel is taken from the artist’s Everything Shines series. Everything Shines is a series of sketches in which the artist traces and draws from a landscape reflected in the screen. While multiple viewpoints are concentrated on a single screen, the figure and ground are quickly and continuously reversed depending on the position of the viewer and the time of day, sometimes resulting in a completely different impression. The mirrors used in this work complicate the composition more than the brass by reflecting the surrounding environment.
Each drawing is given a “different sea” name. Each is the name of a “coined sea” and is printed on the bottom of the frame.
These are “new seas” that do not actually exist.
Water, sand, mirrors
3Drawing of Sea Garden (Everything Shines series)
Wax oil pastel, oil on mirror
15 × 10 cm
4Image/Imagine #1 man
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’]).”
5Light and shadow inside me
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
300 × 202 cm
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
300 × 202 cm
Light and shadow inside me, 2021–
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
Light and shadow inside me is a signature series of two-dimensional works by Kangawa. In the original green works, paper is coated on one side with water-based dye, folded and fixed to form a polygonal prism, and exposed to sunlight for several weeks. Each face of the prism receives a different amount of sunlight depending on the direction of the sun’s rays, resulting in some areas fading faster than others to form a gradation of color. The fading process can be described as a “progression” in the sense that the dye changes color, or a “regression” in the sense that it brings the paper back to its original color. Furthermore, in their use of sun exposure, works from this series can be considered both paintings and photographs. The understated works, created with only their own light and shadows, offer a new perspective on the relationships between light and shadow, subject and medium, painting and photography, and beginning and end.
While the series is most known for its use of bright green dyes, “Power of Imagination” presents a new variant of black-and-white works which use silver halide photographic paper(*1). Like the bright green works that precede them, the black-and-white works are created by folding whole sheets of paper into polygonal prisms. However, the artist then takes the folded photographic paper into a darkroom and directly exposes it under light for several seconds(*2). Due to their distinct materiality and monumental size, the works are more than just ordinary photographs—in fact, they generate an imposing presence akin to paintings. By reproducing the photographic mechanism of recording and measuring light with only the most basic elements, Light and shadow inside me questions the existing boundaries that define art.
*1 Photographic paper is a type of paper that is coated with a light-sensitive material. In silver halide prints, an emulsion containing silver halide is used. The more light the paper is exposed to, the darker it becomes.
*2 A photogram is an image created without a camera, in which objects or materials are directly placed onto photographic paper and exposed to light. The resulting works are all unique as opposed to editioned.
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
120 × 100 cm
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
120 × 100 cm
Right: Light and shadow inside me (untitled) #42, 2023
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
259 × 202 cm
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
120 × 100 cm
Right: Light and shadow inside me (untitled) #66, 2023
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
120 × 100 cm
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
259 × 202 cm
Right: Light and shadow inside me (untitled) #30, 2023
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
300 × 202 cm
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
120 × 100 cm
Private collection
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
120 × 100 cm
Private collection
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
120 × 100 cm
Private collection
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
19 × 22.5 cm
Private collection
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
19 × 22.5 cm
Private collection
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
19 × 22.5 cm
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
19.2 × 22.6 cm
Private collection
6For a certain family (from the White Painting series)
(from the White Painting series)
Canvas
33.3 × 33.3 cm
Private collection
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.
(from the White Painting series)
Canvas
33.3 × 33.3 cm
Private collection
About the White Painting series
Canvas
160 × 160 cm
Private collection
White Painting series, 2017
Canvas
“— 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.”
by David Gears, an art critic who contributes his writing to October magazine and other publications.
Read full story
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 two 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”.
Still from video
Reservations and visits
For inquiries about reservations and visits, please contact us here.
AccessJl. M.H. Thamrin Jl. Timor No.25, RT.9/RW.4, Dukuh Atas, Gondangdia, Kec. Menteng, Kota Jakarta Pusat, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta 10350
*For reservation, please inform your preferred date and time, your name, contact information, and the number of people in the party. Your cooperation is appreciated.
*Please understand that we may not accommodate your reservation at times due to various activities taking place in our space.
*For detailed directions to the location, please refer to the access map.
The space is being planned and organized by YES_pte.ltd.
