MEDIA COVERAGE OF “Stars of the Forest: Elegy for 9/11” CURRENTLY ON VIEW AT THE NATIONAL 9/11 MEMORIAL & MUSEUM:

Small, Zachary. “9/11 Museum’s 20th-Anniversary Exhibitions Become Victims of Cuts.” The New York Times, July 12, 2021. Updated August 9, 2021. Click here.

Kyodo News. “Japanese Artist’s Painting Transformed by 9/11 Attacks Displayed at Memorial Museum.” August 11, 2021. Click here, here and here.

Miura, Ryoichi. “Stars of the Forest.” Shukan New York Seikatsu. (Japanese Weekly Newspaper.) Issue No. 832. August 28, 2021. Click here.

RECENT REVIEWS:

Gomez, Edward M:Mona Lisa, Revisited: History’s Symbol and Muse. With his Mona Lisa Earth Series, Naoto Nakagawa puts Leonardo’s mysteriously grinning subject through a ringer of styles and technical treatments in ambitious, complex images, click here.

Goodman, Jonathan: “Naoto Nakagawa: A Mona Lisa for Our Time,” WhiteHot Magazine, October, 2018. “Naoto Nakagawa was born in Japan, but he came to New York, “to conquer the city” as he says, more than a half century ago, when he was in his teens. He is fully mature as an artist and is in fact an outstanding historian of New York art life in the mid-1960s and after, both in regard to the artworld’s general circumstances and, more specifically, the work and lives of Asian artists.” For the complete article, click here.

Gomez, Edward M.: "Naoto Nakagawa's Art of Seeing and Being," Hyperallergic, October 3, 2015. "Art like Nakagawa’s also seems to propose that to see is to be — that seeing is indelibly linked to the apprehension that one exists. It’s an art that revels in the fleeting, ever-changing nature of being, and now more than ever advocates for some kind of engagement with that awareness. Beyond its expertly rendered alarm clocks, stuffed birds, chain saws, clusters of shimmering stars and wayward planets, that sense of enlightened consciousness may be its real subject, after all." For the complete article, click here.

RECENT SOLO EXHIBITION:

"1,000 Portraits of Hope" at Kondo Hall Marioka, Iwate Prefecture, Japan.  September 30 - October 10, 2016.

"1,000 Portraits of Hope" at Hamato Hall, Marioka, Iwate Prefecture, Japan.  September 30 - October 10, 2016.

RECENT GROUP EXHIBITIONS:

"A Colossal World: Japanese Artists and New York. 1950s-Present

"The Value of Food: Sustaining a Green Planet" at The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, October 6, 2015 to April 3, 2016.  More info here.

"Allegory of Leaves: Nancy Azara, Naoto Nakagawa, Janet Philblad,”
at the Lemmerman Gallery, New Jersey City University, October 22 - December 2, 2015.

Frieze Art Fair, New York, May 14 - 17, 2015. Nakagawa early paintings shown by greengrassi gallery of London.

EXHIBITION REVIEWS:

Earth Wave Paintings
April 13 – May 15, 2011
Feature Inc.
131 Allen Street
New York, NY 10002

Saltz, Jerry. “Critics’ Pick: Profile,” New York Magazine, April 25, 2011
“Like most of the artists at the uniquely astute, always insightful gallery Feature Inc., Naoto Nakagawa has unique vision, individuality, and independence. His highly colored, geometrically structured depictions of luscious flowers, enlarged bumblebees, and butterflies let us feel the fleshy sexiness of nature and the visually succulent details all around us all the time. Painting puckered petals, spiderwebs, volcanoes, and rainbows, Nakagawa creates concentric rectangular rings that allow viewers to feel as if they were peering into the secret life of nature, guided by the steady hand of a visionary botanist.” Complete article here.
http://nymag.com/arts/art/
http://nymag.com/listings/art/naoto-nakagawa/

Zaller, Robert. “Naoto Nakagawa’s ‘Earth Wave’ in New York: Terror in the Garden of Eden.” Broad Street Review: Where Art and Ideas Meet.  April 19, 2011.  Complete article here.

Renzulli, Dianne. “Naoto Nakagawa Exhibition at Feature Inc.” The Battery Park City Broadsheet,
April 18 - May 3, 2011. Complete article here.
http://web.me.com/broadsheet/Broadsheet/Home/Entries/2011/4/14_April_14%2C_2011.html

Nakagawa was interviewed on acclaimed jewelry designer Ippolita's Salon Speaks about his art and creative process. More here. http://www.ippolita.com/salon

Naoto Nakagawa Exhibition Press Release and Q&A with Hudson, Director of Feature Inc.    More here.
http://www.featureinc.com/exhibs-2011/2011-04-05_nakagawa/2011-04-05_nakagawa-exhib.html

Nakagawa and Hudson, Director of Feature Inc, were interviewed in a conversation about art and philosophy for TM Monthly. (coming Fall, 2011)

ARTRUBY.com - a daily bulletin that brings together the most relevant news, exhibits, products, and design innovations in the art world on one energized and constantly updated page.
http://artruby.com/?squaretag=naoto-nakagawa

JAPAN EARTHQUAKE AID PROJECT:

“1,000 Portraits of Hope”

I started to draw 1,000 portraits of survivors of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown that erupted in Japan on March 3, 2011. These portraits were made as a gift for people who lost almost everything. Included are portraits of the brave rescue teams who worked tirelessly in the recovery effort, such as the Japanese military, police officers, firemen, and hundreds of volunteer workers who risked their lives to help and restore others’ well being.  I completed 1,000 portraits in 2012 after visiting the affected area nine times in one year.  All of these portraits were given to the survivors who I drew.

Selections of "1,000 Portraits of Hope" were exhibited in New York City at The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in the exhibition, "Voices from Japan: Despair and Hope from Disaster" and at the Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College in “After the Water Receded: Images from Japan: Naoto Nakagawa and Magdalena Sole.”

In Japan, “1,000 Portraits of Hope” was exhibited at the Fukushima Art Center, the Ishigamino Oka Museum, and at Takarazuka City Hall.  They have been collected once again for an additional exhibition in Sept. - Oct. 2016 at Hamato Hall, Marioka, Iwate Prefecture. 

Media coverage of this project in Japan included articles in the Yomiuri and Asahi newspapers, NHK TV nationally broadcast news, and a feature in a TBS TV documentary.  An English translation of one of the news articles is available here:
file:///Users/carolinepress/Desktop/Naoto%20Nakagawa%20%20Japanese%20News%20Article.webarchive

The project was included in the book, "Zuhause in Fukushima / Das Leben danach: Portraits" by Judith Brandner, with photos by Katsuhiro Ichikawa. (Verlag Kremayr & Scheriau GmbH & Co. KG, Wien: 2014)

“100 Portraits of Famous People”

I started this accompanying series as a fundraiser to assist the earthquake and tsunami victims.  Starting with portraits of former NYC Mayor Koch, NY Police Commissioner Ray Kelley, actor Oliver Platt, and writer Donald Keene, I endeavored to garner more participants such as world leaders, captains of industry, artists, musicians, writers and actors.  Each portrait is signed by myself and the portrait subject, who also writes a message of hope on the drawing. They are authentic likenesses produced for the purpose of raising funds to donate to Japan relief aid.

Preliminary proceeds from the sale of these portraits have been donated to various schools and children's charities in the affected area.

“THE ART OF NAOTO NAKAGAWA” MOBILE APP:

In November 2010 Toura launched an interactive mobile app featuring videos,
a studio tour, commentary and a survey of 120 HD images of Nakagawa’s work.

The app is available at the iTunes store in iPhone and iPad format:
iPhone App ($2.99):
http://itunes.apple.>  Herecom/us/app/the-art-of-naoto-nakagawa/id393624879?mt=8

iPad App ($5.99):
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-art-of-naoto-nakagawa-hd/id393629507?mt=8

It is also available at Android Marketplace for Android phones.
More information can be found online at http://a.toura.com/1751