Exhibition Archive
Exhibition information
The 201st Exhibition Nagai Hiroaki Exhibition: GRAPHIC JAM ZUKO
January 16, 2015 - March 31, 2015
The exhibition at Kyoto ddd gallery will feature the works of Hiroaki Nagai, an art director known for his advertising art marked by a simple and direct approach, a magnificent balance between photo and copy, and a combination of refinement and sincerity.
Advertising is Nagai’s main field, but the scope of his activities in art direction is actually broad and varied. The theme he chose for this exhibition at Kyoto ddd gallery is “GRAPHIC JAM ZUKŌ,” the word “zukō” being a pun suggesting an interplay between drawing and Nagai himself.
Nagai says his creative point of origin is the work he created for his arts and crafts classes in grammar school – known in Japanese as “zukō.” “What I do now isn’t much different,” he says, “except that now, as an adult, I have to rely on myself as a tool while taking into consideration the circumstances that are presented to me.”
This exhibition will introduce interplays of various kinds: a new poster titled “ZUKŌ” by an up-and-coming photographer, previous posters, newspaper and magazine ads, book designs, notes and motifs from his production processes, etc.
Venue
10 Uzumasa Kamikeibu-cho, Ukyo-ku, Kyoto City, Kyoto 616-8533
Tel: 075-871-1480
Opening hours: 11:00am – 7:00pm (until 6:00pm on Saturdays)
Closed on Sundays and holidays
Admission free
ZUKŌ
Normally, I start a job by asking myself what it is I want to convey. For this solo exhibition, though, I confined myself to the question of how to express what’s imbued in the title “ZUKŌ” and aimed to keep to that. As for the desultory array of materials, in retrospect some are things I’ve had an interest in since my childhood, while others are things I’m interested in today as an art director.
As a child I liked to draw and make things. Whether it was drawing on the pavement with chalk or hammering nails and sawing something until late at night, once I decided to do something there was no stopping me – and that’s changed little even today. In that respect, I’m both happy and fortunate to have found myself working as a designer, continuing what I always loved doing.
If I’ve changed in any small way, it’s that I’ve become somewhat self-willed as an adult. With increasing frequency I’ve also come to be influenced by knowledge and information of various kinds. My current state of mind, reflected in the title of my exhibition, can perhaps be described as “zukō” – a word that originally stands for “zuga-kōsaku,” arts and crafts like we had as children in our school curriculum, but in this case I’ve reinterpreted (substituting different characters) to mean an interplay between drawing and myself: GRAPHIC JAM.
Hiroaki Nagai, Art Director
Works
* Profile
Born in Tokyo in 1957. Graduated from Tokyo Metropolitan Kogei High School, where he studied design. After working for Breakfast Inc., established N.G. Inc. in 1989. Member of Tokyo ADC, Tokyo TDC and JAGDA.
* Major Work
Art direction of CI and graphic advertising for Sagawa Express Co., Ltd.; graphic advertising for The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd.’s PRGR and ADVAN products; graphic advertising for California Travel and Tourism Commission; advertising for Wakayama Prefecture tourism campaign; graphic advertising for Suntory’s “Yamazaki” and “Zen” products; design of posters and publicity tools for exhibitions on Picasso, Paul Klee and Morris Louis at Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art; design of posters and publicity tools for Jan Fabre exhibition (“Angels and Warriors”) and “Chat @ the MIMOCA” at Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art; development of CI/VI and corporate advertising for Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co., Ltd.; photo book design and exhibition direction for Louis Vuitton; design and art direction of “Sogetsu” quarterly magazine; etc.
* Solo Exhibitions
“JAGDA New Designer Award Exhibition” (Creation Gallery G8, 1997); “Blanc blanc blanc” (HB Gallery, 2004); “Hiroaki Nagai Art Direction Exhibition” (Junshin Gallery at Tokyo Junshin Women’s College, 2007); “GRAPHIC TRIAL 2008” (P&P Gallery at Printing Museum, Tokyo, 2008); “Sou-Tei-Gai” (Morioka Shoten, 2012); etc.
* Major Awards
1995 New York ADC “Gold Award” (for Katsuhiro Ichikawa photo book “Egonoki”); 1997 JAGDA New Designer Award; 1997 East Japan Railway Company Poster Grand Prix “Gold Award” (for Wakayama Prefecture promotional campaign); 2000 Tokyo ADC Award (for Kinokuniya Honzaemon); 2001 “Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Prize” at All Japan Catalogue and Poster Fair (for Jan Fabre graphics); 2002 Hong Kong Design Show “Gold Award” (for Jan Fabre poster and photo book “Unbalance”); 2006 Tokyo ADC Award (for “Utsubo Moon”); 2009 “Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Prize” at Japan Book Design Contest (for photo book “TORSO”); 2009 “Silver Prize” at International Poster Triennial in Toyama (for “Paul Klee”); 2012 JAGDA Award (for Louis Vuitton Forest Photo Exhibition); 2012 Design For Asia “Gold Award” (for Louis Vuitton Forest Box); etc.
Works
Poster “Kinokuniya Honzaemon” (2000）
Poster “Jan Fabre” （2001）
Magazine ad. “Suntory's Yamazaki” （2002）
Poster “Paul Klee” （2006）
Poster “Utsubo Moon” （2007）
Poster「Barnett Newman」（2010）
「LOUIS VUITTON FOREST BOX」（2011）
Poster「GRAPHIC JAM ZUKO」（2014）
