Kohei nawa biography of william hill
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His works are a part of world's leading art institutions’ collections, such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Mori Art Museum, Leeum Museum of Art, and ARARIO Collection. He has participated in group exhibitions at the Pace Gallery (Tokyo, Japan, 2024), Queensland Gallery of Modern Art (Queensland, Australia, 2024), Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan, 2023; 2014), National Gallery of Art (Washington D.C., US, 2019), Centre Pompidou-Metz(Metz, France, 2017), F-Art House (Okayama, Japan, 2016), ZKM (Karlsruhe, Germany, 2016), La Maison de la Culture du Japon a Paris (Paris, France, 2015), ArtScience Museum (Singapore, 2015), and more.
In 2023, the artist's large sculpture Ether (Equality) was installed in public in Seguin Island by the Seine River in Paris, France.
Kohei NAWA was born in Osaka, Japan in 1975. The artist dismantles and combines color, texture, and shape using various materials such as carbon, silicon, crystal, gold, and aluminum.
The series VESSEL (2016-2019) was made as part of a performance of the same title, in collaboration with choreographer Damien JALET (b.
1976). He has held solo exhibitions at prestigious art institutions including SCAI THE BATHHOUSE (Tokyo, Japan, 2025; 2021; 2018; 2015; 2010), Galerie Vera Munro (Hamburg, Germany, 2024; 2009), ARARIO GALLERY SHANGHAI (Shanghai, China, 2022; 2017; 2015), Pace Gallery (New York; Palo Alto, US, 2022), Louvre Museum (Paris, France, 2018), Kirhishima Open-Air Museum (Kagoshima, Japan, 2013), ARARIO GALLERY CHEONAN (Cheonan, Korea, 2013; 2012), Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan, 2011), Joan Miro Foundation (Barcelona, Spain, 2008), Ierimonti Gallery (Milano, Italy, 2007), and more.
5 November, 2025 - Sat. 31 January, 2026
SCAI The Bathhouse is a contemporary art gallery located in Yanaka, with a town ambience reminiscent of Old Tokyo. Enjoying Modern Art with Dick Bruna," Hara Museum ARC, Gunma, Japan
"Banquet: A Feast for the Senses," Pacific Asia Museum, California, USA
"Rendez-vous project exhibition," Spiral, Tokyo, Japan
"Amuseland 2007 Beautiful Dreamer," Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Hokkaido, Japan
"Visualize-The history and the futurescape of visual media," Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan
"ISCP open weekend," ISCP studio, New York, USA
"Nimbi and Penumbrae," D.U.M.B.O.
He won the 32nd Kyoto Art Culture Award in 2019, and was selected as the "50 Next Most Collectible Artists" by Art+Auction in 2012. In this same ethos, the gallery continues to realize visionary initiatives, and recently opened "Komagome Soko", an experimental project space for emerging talents and "SCAI PARK" which extends preservation and depot space to an exhibition site.
Access
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Fine Art SculptureSelected Artists in Kyoto 2003, Highest Award, Japan
Kirin Art Award 2003, Encouragement Prize, Japan
Fine Art Sculpture
Royal College of Art, Sculpture course, Exchange program
Selected Solo Exhibitions
- 2024
- "#39 Kohei Nawa," SCAI PARK, Tokyo, Japan
- 2023
- "From Code to Material," kojin kyoto, Kyoto, Japan
"Cell Field," Kyoto Tsutaya Books, Kyoto, Japan - 2022
- "Focus," RICOH ART GALLERY, Tokyo, Japan
"Generative Interface," Towada Art Center, Aomori, Japan
"Fountain," Ginza Tsutaya Books, GINZA ATRIUM, Tokyo, Japan - 2021
- "TORNSCAPE," SCAI THE BATHHOUSE, Tokyo, Japan
"MOMENT," SCAI PARK, Tokyo, Japan
"Metamorphosis Garden," GINZA SIX, Tokyo, Japan - 2020
- "Oracle," GYRE GALLERY, Tokyo, Japan
"Special exhibition for 100th anniversary of its enthronement of Meiji Jingu," Meiji Jingu, Tokyo, Japan - 2019
- "Foam," 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan
- 2018
- "Biomatrix," SCAI THE BATHHOUSE, Tokyo, Japan
"THRONE," Musee du Louvre (Pyramid), Paris, France - 2017
- "ESPUMA," JAPAN HOUSE São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
- 2016
- "Kotei," Shinshoji Zen Museum and Gardens, Hiroshima, Japan
- 2015
- "FORCE," SCAI THE BATHHOUSE, Tokyo, Japan
- 2013
- "KOHEI NAWA | SANDWICH-CREATIVE PLATFORMFOR CONTEMPORARY ART," EYE OF GYRE, Tokyo, Japan
"Kohei NawaーSCULPTURE GARDEN," Kirishima Open-Air Museum, Kagoshima, Japan - 2011
- "SYNTHESIS," The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- 2010
- "Synthesis," SCAI THE BATHHOUSE, Tokyo, Japan
- 2009
- "Cell," Vera Munro, Hamburg, Germany
"L_B_S," Maison Hermes, Tokyo, Japan
"Transcode," Gallery NOMART, Osaka, Japan - 2008
- The poetry of bizarreMiro Foundation, Barcelona, Spain
"PixCell," PEKIN FINE ARTS, Beijing, China
"TORSO," Nomart Edition/Project Space, Osaka, Japan - 2007
- "PixCell," ierimonti gallery, Milan, Italy
- 2006
- "GUSH," SCAI THE BATHHOUSE, Tokyo, Japan
"AIR," Nomart Edition / Project Space, Osaka, Japan - 2005
- Show window art direction, Maison Hermes, Tokyo, Japan
"Drawings," studio J, Osaka, Japan - 2004
- "0409 science fiction," INAX GALLERY 2, Tokyo, Japan
"Catalyst," Nomart Edition/Project Space, Osaka, Japan - 2003
- "PixCell," Nomart Edition/Project Space, Osaka, Japan
"PixCell," Studio J, Osaka, Japan
"CELL-osmosis," UPLINK GALLERY, Tokyo, Japan - 2002
- "CELL," Nomart Edition / Project Space, Osaka, Japan
"Kyoto Art Map, NAWA Kohei," Gallery Maronie, Kyoto, Japan - 2001
- Art Synapse, "NAWA Kohei," Gallery Maronie, Kyoto, Japan
- 2000
- "ANIMAZUMO," Gallery SOWAKA, Kyoto, Japan
Selected Group Exhibitions
- 2025
- "#42 Yjji Takeoka / Kohei Nawa," SCAI PARK, Tokyo, Japan
- 2024
- "-Hyakunengo Art Festival-Environment and Desire-Uchiboso Art Festival," KURKKU FIELDS, Chiba, Japan
"#38 Mariko Mori, Kohei Nawa, Bosco Sodi, Atsushi Saga, Yusuke Komuta, Natsuyuki Nakanishi," SCAI PARK, Tokyo, Japan
"Absolute Chairs," The Museum of Modern Art Saitama, Saitama, Japan - 2023
- "Iris van Herpen.
In the world of the artist, organic forms invariably become stylized and artificial, displaying the parts accumulated together as a whole, like cells, creating complex and dynamic structures. Sculpting the Senses" Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France
"Data is the New Oil," THE REFERENCE, Seoul, South Korea
"#37 Anish Kapoor, Darren Almond, Kohei Nawa, Lee Ufan, Reijiro Wada," SCAI PARK, Tokyo, Japan
"SUMMER FESTIVAL from the Taguchi Art Collection," Kagoshima City Museum of Art, Kagoshima, Japan
"Art in Love with Design ♡ Design Envious of Art," Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan
"MOT Collection: Membrane of the Time / Breathing," Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
"TAGUKORE: Dunno A Thing About Art (But I Like It)," Kadokawa Culture Museum, Saitama, Japan - 2022
- "#36 Anish Kapoor, Tatsuo Miyajima, Moon Kyunjwon & Jeon Joonho, Jeppe Hein, Atsushi Saga, Koehi Nawa, He Xiangyu," SCAI PARK, Tokyo, Japan
"Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams," Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
"The trace of Hakushu – What’s Art Camp Hakushu?" Ichihara Lakeside Museum, Chiba, Japan
"Since 1989 NOMART," Ginza Tsutaya Books GINZA ATRIUM, Tokyo, Japan
"MAM Collection 015: Welcome to the Fairyland," Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
"OKETA COLLECTION,"Mariage: From Antiques to Contemporary Art" WHAT MUSEUM, Tokyo, Japan
"Range of the Senses: What It Means to "Experience" Today," The National museum of Art, Osaka, Japan - 2021
- "Living in symbiosis with Forest and Water," Nagano Prefectural Art Museum, Nagano, Japan
"Reborn-Art Festival 2021-22," Miyagi, Japan
"NO SIDE" Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi Main Store, Contemporary gallery, Tokyo, Japan
"Next World – Taguchi Art Collection x Iwaki City Art Museum," Iwaki City Art Museum, Fukushima, Japan
"Kiinseido," Meiji Jingu, Tokyo, Japan
"TAIYO," MtK Contemporary Art, Kyoto, Japan - 2020
- "SCAI 30th Anniversary Exhibition," SCAI PARK, Tokyo, Japan
"250 Years of Kyoto Art Masterpieces," Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art, Kyoto, Japan
"Meiji Jingu Forest Festival of Art: Tenkukaikatsu," Meiji Jingu, Tokyo, Japan
"Animals in Art," ARKEN Museum of Modern Art, Ishøj, Denmark - 2019
- "Reborn- Art Festival 2019," Ishinomaki, Miyagi, Japan
"Throughout Time: The Sense of Beauty," Nijo-jo Castle, Kyoto, Japan
"Weavers of Worlds - A Century of Flux in Japanese Modern / Contemporary Art -," Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
"Globe as a Palette ; Contemporary Art from The Taguchi Art Collection," Sapporo Art Museum, Hokkaido, Japan "Takahashi Collection," Tsuruoka Art Forum, Yamagata, Japan "The Life of Animals in Japanese Art," The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., USA
"Conversations: Contemporary Asian Art," Hermitage Museum & Gardens, Norfol , USA - 2018
- "PIXCELL-DEER," Musee de chasse et de la nature, Paris, France
"Exposition FUKAMI," Hotel Salmon de Rothchild, Paris, France - 2017
- "#04 collection," SCAI PARK, Tokyo, Japan
"GLOBAL NEW ART: The Essence of the Taguchi Art Collection," The Woodone Museum of Art, Hiroshima, Japan
"Japanorama: New Vision on Art since 1970," Centre Pompidou-Metz, France
"#01 Anish Kapoor, Daisuke Ohba, Kohei Nawa, Naoki Ishikawa," SCAI PARK, Tokyo, Japan
"Reborn-Art Festival 2017," Ishinomaki City, Miyagi, Japan
"TAKAHASHI COLLECTION Mindfulness 2017," Yamagata Museum of Art, Yamagata, Japan - 2016
- "Setouchi Triennale 2016 : Inujima Art House Project," F-Art House, Okayama, Japan
"Aichi Triennale 2016 : The column project, Trans-dimensional Photos: Images in the Future Tense," Aichi, Japan
"New Sensorium - Exiting from Failures of Modernization -," ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany
"400th anniversary of the Rinpa School -DNA of Rinpa- Investigating the aesthetic codes of Rinpa in the modern and contemporary era,"Kyoto municipal museum of art, Kyoto, Japan - 2015
- "COSMOS / INTIME - La collection Takahashi," La Maison de la Culture du Japon a Paris, Paris, France
"400th anniversary of the Rinpa School -Hosomi collection and contemporary artists in Kyoto," Hosomi Museum, Kyoto, Japan
"TAKAHASHI COLLECTION : Mirror Neuron," Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
"Taguchi Hiroshi Art Collection: A Walk around the Contemporary Art World after Paradigm Shift," The Museum of Fine Art, Gifu, Japan
"Prudential Eye Awards," ArtScience Museum, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore - 2014
- "mission [SPACExART] – beyond cosmologies," The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
"M Home: Living in Space RedStar," Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
"THE MIRROR - Hold the Mirror up to nature - ," Nagoya Chamber of Commerce & Industry Hall, Tokyo, Japan
"Beyond and Between," Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
"Appetizing Art: When Art Meets Food," Yokosuka Museum of Art, Kanazawa, Japan
"Visual Deception II: Into the Future," Bunkamura The Museum, Tokyo, Japan
"Trade fiscal 2014 museum in Wa~ao!!Arts Center, New York, USA
"Valencia Biennal - Agua sin ti no soy," Valencia, Spain - 2004
- "WINTER SHOW," SCAI THE BATHHOUSE, Tokyo, Japan
"OSAKA ・ ART - KALEIDOSCOPE, OSAKA 04," CASO, Osaka, Japan
"Hi-energy field," KPO KIRIN PLAZA, Osaka, Japan
"Cafe in Mito 2004," Art Tower Mito - Contemporary art gallery, Ibaraki, Japan
"Hi-energy field," Tamada Projects Art Space, Tokyo, Japan
"Have We Met?," Japan Foundation Forum, Tokyo, Japan - 2003
- "Selected Artists in Kyoto," Kyoto Cultural Museum, Kyoto (Grand Prix), Japan
"Trans -," Kyoto Art Center, Kyoto, Japan
"KIRIN ART AWARD 2003 Osaka," KPO KIRIN PLAZA, Osaka, Japan - 2002
- "Art in CASO," CASO, Osaka, Japan
- 2001
- "Image and Materiality," Nomart Edition / Project Space, Osaka, Japan
"Saw You – boomerang art project," GAK, Bremen, Germany
"NOMART 01," CASO, Osaka, Japan
"Boomerang art project Report," Gallery Sowaka, Kyoto, Japan - 2000
- "Boomerang art project 2000-2001," Kyoto Art Center, Kyoto, Japan
- 1999
- "OSMOSIS," Royal College of Art Gulbankian Gallery, London, UK
Public Collections
- ART FOUNDATION, Kentucky, USA
COMICO ART MUSEUM YUFUIN, Oita, Japan
CONRAD OSAKA, Osaka, Japan
Daimler Art Collection, Berlin, Germany
E.SUN BANK, Taipei, Taiwan
Franks – Suss Collection, London, UK
Grand Hyatt at SFO, San Francisco, USA
Hara Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Long Museum, Shanghai, China
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
National Gallry of Victoria, Melborne, Australia
Pigozzi Collection, New York, USA
Queensland Art Gallery, Queensland, Australia Daimler Chrysler
Ritz Carlton Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan
Shin-Marunouchi Building, Tokyo, Japan
ShinPuhKan, Kyoto, Japan
Sovereign Art Foundation, Hong Kong
Takahashi Ryutaro Collection, Tokyo, Japan
Takamatsu City Museum, Kagawa, Japan
Takenaka Corporation / Entrance Lobby, Tokyo, Japan
Tokyo Garden Terrace Kioicho, Tokyo, Japan
Tokyo Midtown, Tokyo, Japan
Toyosu Front, Tokyo, Japan
Toyota Art Collection, Aichi, Japan
Other
- 2023
- Public art "Ether (Equality)," Seguin Island, Boulogne-Billancourt, France
- 2010
- KDDI iida ART EDITIONS concept model
Moon Kyungwon & Jeon Joonho
"News from Nowhere : Laboratory of Spring and Autumn Collection" Wed.
exciting Art Craft Exhibition," Urasoe Museum, Okinawa, Japan
"ULTRAANTEROOM EXHIBITION," HOTEL ANTEROOM KYOTO, Kyoto, Japan
"Making Links: 25 years," SCAI THE BATHHOUSE, Tokyo, Japan
2013 AICHI Triennale 2013, Aichi, Japan
"Inujima Art House Project," F-Art House, Okayama, Japan
"KOHEI NAWA | SANDWICH," EYE OF GYRE, Tokyo, Japan 2012 "Parallel Japanese Worlds," A4 Contemporary Arts Center, Chengdu, China 2011 "Beyond," SCAI THE BATHHOUSE, Tokyo, Japan
"GRASSTRESS 2011," Palazzo Cavalli Franchetti, Venice, Italy
"Bye Bye Kitty," Japan Society, New York, USA 2010 "Living in Evolution," Busan Biennale 2010, Busan, South Korea
"Great New Wave : Contemporary Art from Japan," Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
"Franks-Suss Collection," Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
"14th Asian Art Biennale Bangladesh 2010," Dhaka, Bangladesh
"Trans–Cool TOKYO - Contemporary Japanese Art from MOT Collection," Bangkok Art Culture, Center, Bangkok, Thailand
"CITY2.0," EYE OF GYRE, Tokyo, Japan 2009 6th Asia Pacific Triennale, Brisbane, Australia
"VOCA 2009," The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo, Japan
"Animamix Biennial-Visial Attract and Attack," Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei, Taipei, Taiwan
"Neoteny Japan, Takahashi Collection," The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo, Japan
"From Home to the Museum:Tanaka Tsuneko Collection," The Museum of Modern Art Wakayama, Wakayama, Japan 2008 "Great New Wave: Contemporary Art from Japan," Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
"Parallel World," Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan 2007 "ArtScope 2005-2006," Daimler Chrysler Contemporary, Berlin, Germany
"Roppongi Crossing 2007," Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan 2006 "Hydridity:The Evolution of Spaces and Spaces in 21st Century Art," 21c Museum, Kentucky, USA
"Art Scope 2005-2006," Hara Museum, Tokyo, Japan
"Let's Go to the Museum!
Through a number of public art projects including iconic installations by Tatsuo Miyajima and Louise Bourgeois at Roppongi Hills, SCAI The Bathhouse has been introducing the cutting edge of art into landscapes of the city, expanding audiences for contemporary art in Japan.
SCAI The Bathhouse seeks to function as a meeting place of various currents of contemporary art, both in Japan and abroad, and to play a leading and responsible role in the art scene.
Figure sculptures that capture the piercing intensity of human body, and music in which fills and condenses the air around the stage enliven new sensation in the viewer, crossing the limits of cognition and presenting an experience that traverses the boundaries of reason and perception. Take a step inside, and you will find a white cube with soft natural light descending from the high ceiling.
Since its establishment in 1993, SCAI The Bathhouse has realized numerous exhibitions and commission projects.
1975) presents a multilateral work based on his diverse practice, which examines the relationship between nature and artificiality, paying attention to the association between the individual and the whole. In association with the gallery, artists such as Anish Kapoor, Darren Almond, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and He Xiangyu have produced new bodies of work inspired by Japanese culture.
He received his BFA in 1998, MFA in 2000, and PhD in 2003, majoring in sculpture at Kyoto City University of Arts, Kyoto, Japan. The gallery is also establishing the global presence of next-generation talent, such as Kohei Nawa and Reijiro Wada. In walking proximity to Ueno, an area dense with museums and art schools, the gallery was converted from a venerable 200-year-old public bathhouse.

The series of sculptures entitled PixCell (2017-2022), a combination of the unit ‘Pixel’ that represents the accuracy of the image in the digital era and ‘Cell’ that refers to biological cells, highlights phenomenological questions about the nature of the object.
"ULTRAANTEROOM EXHIBITION," HOTEL ANTEROOM KYOTO, Kyoto, Japan
"Making Links: 25 years," SCAI THE BATHHOUSE, Tokyo, Japan
"Inujima Art House Project," F-Art House, Okayama, Japan
"KOHEI NAWA | SANDWICH," EYE OF GYRE, Tokyo, Japan
"GRASSTRESS 2011," Palazzo Cavalli Franchetti, Venice, Italy
"Bye Bye Kitty," Japan Society, New York, USA
"Great New Wave : Contemporary Art from Japan," Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
"Franks-Suss Collection," Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
"14th Asian Art Biennale Bangladesh 2010," Dhaka, Bangladesh
"Trans–Cool TOKYO - Contemporary Japanese Art from MOT Collection," Bangkok Art Culture, Center, Bangkok, Thailand
"CITY2.0," EYE OF GYRE, Tokyo, Japan
"VOCA 2009," The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo, Japan
"Animamix Biennial-Visial Attract and Attack," Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei, Taipei, Taiwan
"Neoteny Japan, Takahashi Collection," The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo, Japan
"From Home to the Museum:Tanaka Tsuneko Collection," The Museum of Modern Art Wakayama, Wakayama, Japan
"Parallel World," Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
"Roppongi Crossing 2007," Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
"Art Scope 2005-2006," Hara Museum, Tokyo, Japan
"Let's Go to the Museum!
Through a number of public art projects including iconic installations by Tatsuo Miyajima and Louise Bourgeois at Roppongi Hills, SCAI The Bathhouse has been introducing the cutting edge of art into landscapes of the city, expanding audiences for contemporary art in Japan.
SCAI The Bathhouse seeks to function as a meeting place of various currents of contemporary art, both in Japan and abroad, and to play a leading and responsible role in the art scene.
Figure sculptures that capture the piercing intensity of human body, and music in which fills and condenses the air around the stage enliven new sensation in the viewer, crossing the limits of cognition and presenting an experience that traverses the boundaries of reason and perception. Take a step inside, and you will find a white cube with soft natural light descending from the high ceiling.
Since its establishment in 1993, SCAI The Bathhouse has realized numerous exhibitions and commission projects.
1975) presents a multilateral work based on his diverse practice, which examines the relationship between nature and artificiality, paying attention to the association between the individual and the whole. In association with the gallery, artists such as Anish Kapoor, Darren Almond, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and He Xiangyu have produced new bodies of work inspired by Japanese culture.
He received his BFA in 1998, MFA in 2000, and PhD in 2003, majoring in sculpture at Kyoto City University of Arts, Kyoto, Japan. The gallery is also establishing the global presence of next-generation talent, such as Kohei Nawa and Reijiro Wada. In walking proximity to Ueno, an area dense with museums and art schools, the gallery was converted from a venerable 200-year-old public bathhouse.
The series of sculptures entitled PixCell (2017-2022), a combination of the unit ‘Pixel’ that represents the accuracy of the image in the digital era and ‘Cell’ that refers to biological cells, highlights phenomenological questions about the nature of the object.