Jiro Nagase

Nonaka-Hill opens Jiro Nagase’s first solo exhibition in Los Angeles on Saturday, November 23 from 6 to 8pm. Jiro Nagase continues his in depth material exploration of aluminum. Chairs, lamps, vessels, architectural elements, analog musical instruments all realized in matte polished aluminum create a catalog of living sculpture, equally ready for functional deployment or aesthetic pleasure. For years Nagase has studied Siberian folk music and the mechanism of musical instruments leading to his production of sound machines RM-2024 and EG-01. Performances will be held by the artist on opening night and on Saturday, December 7th

ノナカ・ヒルは11月23日（土）午後6時から8時まで、永瀬二郎のロサンゼルスでの初個展を開催致します。永瀬二郎はアルミニウムに関する素材を深く探求し続けており、椅子、ランプ、器、建築的要素、アナログ楽器など、すべてがマットな質感で磨かれたアルミニウムで制作され、生活空間の彫刻として形成しています。それらは機能的に使用されることもあれば、美的な楽しみとして鑑賞することも可能です。永瀬は、長年シベリアの民族音楽と楽器のメカニズムを研究し、サウンドマシンRM-2024やEG-01を制作してきました。初日と12月7日（土）には、アーティストによるパフォーマンスも予定されています。

For the exhibition, Jiro Nagase continues his in depth material exploration of aluminum. Lightweight, ductile, nonmagnetic and relatively new to the hands of human creation, aluminum was discovered in 1825 and industrialized for the first time in 1865, by comparison the first human use of iron dates to before 3500 BC. Its relative state-of- the-art status, along with its strength and formal aesthetic properties makes aluminum a choice material for Nagase to realize his creations. Chairs, lamps, vessels, architectural elements, analog musical instruments all realized in matte polished aluminum create a catalog of living sculpture, equally ready for functional deployment or aesthetic pleasure.

Simple architectural chairs, modifiable with back and armrests, can be merged together infinitely; lamps turned inside out allowing the user to experience the formal organization of circuitry and wiring as well as the on/off of illumination; stanchions rendered with such refinement they question their own alleged utility; each of Nagase’s realizations masterfully blur culturally imposed lines between art and design.

-Comparisons could be drawn to the French architect and designer Jean Prouvé, who also engaged aluminum in depth, or the Bauhaus and De Stijl schools of thought, their ideas of simplicity of forms, the primacy of function, and lack of unnecessary ornament. Perhaps less apparent , though equally relevant, are connections to minimalist sculpture from the 60s and 70s, and the Southern California “finishfetishists”- both with an asymptotic drive toward perfection. Like all successful design, the objects Nagase creates elegantly solve the problems they take on, while also performing formally as sculptures, engaging the classical elements of fine art; line, shape, space, value, form, texture, color - each work asking as many questions as it answers.