Kazumasa Nagai and Kazufumi Nagai Duo Exhibition "LIFE and life at OFS GALLERY from April 18 to May 12

2024.03.12 10:30

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Graphic designer Kazumasa Nagai and art director Kazufumi Nagai will hold their first two-person exhibition "LIFE and life" at OFS GALLERY (Setagaya-ku, Tokyo) from April 18 (Thu) to May 12 (Sun), 2024.

The two designers, who have taken different approaches to creativity, will create works on the same theme. In addition to new posters, video works will be exhibited and goods exclusive to the venue will be sold.

Duo Exhibition "LIFE and life

Two-person exhibition "LIFE and life

While father and son stand in the large field of "design," the two artists have continued to expand their creative interpretations with completely different approaches.

Kazumasa Nagai started his career as a graphic designer with geometric expressions, and his drawings of figurative animals marked a major shift in his style. His LIFE series, which pursues life, has already been his lifework for nearly 40 years.

Kazushi Nagai, on the other hand, established HAKUHODO DESIGN in 2003 after working for an advertising company. He finds value and interest in designing concepts, and his work focuses on branding.

The changing values that have flowed with the times and their relationship as parents and children, which must have played a major role in their respective paths.

Ikko Tanaka approached me a long time ago about doing a parent-child project, but I turned him down because I had no track record," he said. After watching the LIFE series for so long, I wondered how I would have expressed myself. Kazushi Nagai explains how this project came about.

This exhibition, which was realized precisely because it is now possible, will take universal motifs as its theme, revealing differences and similarities in interpretation and the relationship between the two artists through new posters, video works, and texts of dialogues. Please enjoy "LIFE and life" unraveled in their respective contexts.

Outline of the exhibition

Project name: "LIFE and life": A two-person exhibition by Kazumasa Nagai and Kazufumi Nagai

Dates: April 18 (Thu) - May 12 (Sun), 2024

Venue : OFS GALLERY (in OFS.TOKYO)

　　　　　3-7-3 Ikejiri, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 154-0001, Japan

　　　　　TEL 03-6677-0575

　　　　　URL https://www.ofs.tokyo/

　　　　　Instagram @ofs_tokyo

Access: 4 min. walk from Ikejiri-Ohashi Station (West Exit) on Denentoshi Line

0PEN ：12:00 - 20:00 (last admission by 18:00)

CLOSE ：Tuesday. Wednesdays

Admission : Free

Comments and profiles for the exhibition

Kazumasa Nagai, graphic designer

＜Comments on the exhibition

I started graphic design in 1951, and pursued my own style by continuing to create abstract, space-inspired works. In 1986, however, I introduced the creatures. It was a big decision to throw away all of my previous accumulations. This is the poster shown in this exhibition. He has pursued the theme of "LIFE" to inspire himself, who has been frail since childhood, and because he is fascinated by the wonders of life. I also hope that my work will inspire people to feel the importance of symbiosis at a time when the lives of all living creatures are threatened by the deterioration of the global environment. I have been working with animals as symbols of life, not as realistic figures, in the hope that by depicting them freely and primitively, I can make a direct appeal to the idea of life. I am grateful for this precious opportunity.

<Profile

Born in Osaka in 1929, he left the Department of Sculpture at Tokyo University of the Arts in 1951, participated in the founding of Nippon Design Center in 1960 with Ikko Tanaka and others from Osaka, became President and Representative Director in 1975, and currently serves as Chief Advisor and Special Advisor to JAGDA. He has created many marks, CI, and posters for such clients as the Sapporo Winter Olympics, Okinawa Ocean Expo, Ibaraki Prefecture, Niigata Prefecture, JA, Asahi Breweries, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, etc. In the late 1980s, he began creating the "LIFE" series using plants and animals as motifs, and in 2003, he expanded into copperplate engraving. In 2003, he began to develop his own series of copperplate prints. He has received numerous domestic and international awards, including the Tokyo ADC Grand Prix, Yusaku Kamekura Award, Mainichi Design Award, Mainichi Art Award, Minister of Education's Art Encouragement Prize, Medal with Purple Ribbon, The Order of the Rising Sun, Himeji City Grand Prize for Arts and Culture, Warsaw International Poster Biennale Gold Prize, and Brno International Graphic Biennale Grand Prix. His works are in the collections of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, the Museum of Modern Art, Toyama, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and more than 20 other museums around the world.

Kazumasa Nagai

Kazumasa Nagai Kazufumi Nagai, Art Director

<Comments on the exhibition

I think I first became aware of design when I was 5-6 years old. I remember seeing my father's work and thinking that it looked fun and that I could do it too, so I drew designs on paper. After that, however, I became completely detached from design. It was not until my senior year of high school that I got back into design, which is quite late for a designer. I joined an advertising company, and in 2003, I started my own company, currently working mainly in branding. A little after joining the company, I was approached by Ikko Tanaka about a father-son exhibition project. At the time, I had no track record and turned it down. However, that experience has remained with me to this day. Facing my father, a world-renowned graphic designer, in creating a poster on the theme of LIFE may be a reckless attempt, but I hope that you will see it as a challenge.

<Profile

President of HAKUHODO DESIGN and professor at Tama Art University. After graduating from Tama Art University, he joined Hakuhodo Inc. and in 2003 established HAKUHODO DESIGN, a branding by design company. He has been supporting management reforms for various companies and governments, as well as working on branding, VI design, and project design for businesses, products, and services. Since 2012, he has been teaching at Tama Art University's Department of Integrated Design, which teaches cross-disciplinary design, and has served as creative director of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's "Tokyo Brand" since 2015 and as jury chairman of the Good Design Award from 2015 to 2017. He also served as a member of the "Study Group on Industrial Competitiveness and Design" of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Japan Patent Office. His representative works include Helpmark, Suntory Iemon, TOKYOOTOKYO, Mori Building, and Uheim. He has received numerous domestic and international awards, including Creator of the Year, ADC Grand Prix, and Mainichi Design Award. Author of "Hakuhodo Design Branding," "Future Design Management," etc.

Kazushi Nagai

Kazumasa Nagai and Kazufumi Nagai's latest poster on the same theme

Kazumasa Nagai will exhibit his 1986 series, which first featured animals, and his latest work LIFE. For nearly 40 years, he has been pursuing the world of LIFE as an expression accompanied by physicality, from the age of abstract graphics, the age of hand-drawing, and the age of using copperplate engraving. In his new works, he challenges a new expression incorporating new motifs such as life and soul in addition to living creatures, drawn with trembling lines. Taking LIFE as his theme, Kazufumi Nagai has taken up the challenge of how to interpret living creatures as graphic design, depicting a world where not only natural bodies but also technology coexist and coexist in harmony with the evolution of technology.

The exhibition venue is selling full-size posters of the new works.

KAZUMASA NAGAI〈 LIFE〉2024

KAZUFUMI NAGAI〈 life〉2024

KAZUMASA NAGAI〈 JAPAN〉1986

KAZUFUMI NAGAI〈 life〉2024

Kenya Hara and Kazufumi Nagai Talk Session

Kenya Hara, currently president of Nippon Design Center, has spent a great deal of time with Kazumasa Nagai, a founding member of Nippon Design Center. In a sense, he is the designer who has seen Kazumasa Nagai most closely. At the same time, he and Kazushi Nagai are designers of the same generation, and in private, they have been tea ceremony buddies for 10 years. In this talk, we will discuss what is the essence of Kazumasa Nagai? What is the difference between Kazumasa Nagai and Kazufumi Nagai? What do they really have in common? Kazushi Nagai will ask Kenya Hara about such questions as historical background, fields of work, and differences in values.

Date: Monday, April 22, 2024 from 18:30

Venue: OFS GALLERY

Performers: Kenya Hara, Kazushi Nagai

Fee: Free of charge

Capacity: 30 persons (reservations required)

Reservations will be accepted from March 14 (Thu).