Yuji Nagai’s first exhibition in the US. An emerging Japanese artist, Yuji Nagai creates paper vessels holding water and then photographs them under strikingly bright – almost blinding – light.
The vessels’ seeming fragility is emphasized by their pastel colors. And yet, no matter how fragile and breakable, they hold water firmly. It is only over time that the paper begins to soak water, thus beginning a process of deterioration that leads to the breaking point.
It is a brilliant reminder that fragility is as much a function of time as it is of the materials used. Nagai persuasively suggests that we read his vessels as a metaphor for the human body and, by extension, the human condition.
But the artworks, here showcased in magnificent, pristine offset prints, are also marvels of design and composition in their own right.