The Backpackers Hostel Blog

From Fri 30 May – Sun 20 Jul

Fundació Joan Miró (Av Miramar, 1 – Sants-Montjuïc)

Tue – Sat 10am – 7pm (Oct-Jun). 10am – 8pm (Jul-Sep). Thu 10am – 9:30
Sun and public holidays 10am – 2:30pm. Mon (except public holidays) Closed.
General ticket: adults: € 8. Reduced rate: € 6 /Temporary exhibitions: adults € 4. Reduced rate € 3 / Espai 13 € 2,5

Kohei Nawa was born in Osaka in 1975. Since completing a Ph.D in fine art sculpture from Kyoto City University of Art in 2003, he has won several awards including the Kirin Art Award 2003, confirming his reputation as an up-and-coming young artist whose work is highly regarded both in Japan and overseas. Together with the influence of British sculpture derived from his experience as an exchange student at the Royal College of Art, one can also discern in Nawa’s works the development of the Japanese sculptural approach of focusing on the “outer layer.”

Nawa’s sculpture series include works consisting of various objects purchased in Internet auctions, such as toys and stuffed animals, that the artist has covered with transparent glass beads or placed in prism boxes. First, through searches using key words, he finds an object from the sea of information on the Web and perceives it as a digital image on a computer screen (first contact with the object). Next, once the object has come into his hands, he experiences its actual physical presence (second contact). Then, by adding the effect of glass beads or prism box, the object is presented as a work emerging from the new order of the information society. These works reveal the uncertainty of the position of reality between seeing and perception. (Taken from www.undo.net, www.artnet.com and www.fjmiro.es)