VERSO L’INFINITO | KYOJI NAGATANI

LISTEN CRITICAL TEXT (Only in Italian)

Four years after his Varese debut at PUNTO SULL’ARTE, in 2017, KYOJI NAGATANI returns to the gallery, with a solo show at the ground floor of the gallery. The OPENING RECEPTION of his solo exhibition entitled VERSO L’INFINITO will take place on Saturday, March 13, from 3 to 8 pm. The event is organized in compliance with the health regulations issued by Italian Government and the access to the Gallery will be limited. It is recommended to book a time slot from 3 to 8 pm for visiting the exhibition and avoiding waiting times.

 To celebrate more than forty years since his arrival in Italy (the sculptor first moved to Milan in 1978 for attending the Brera Academy and in 1981 he came back thanks to a scholarship issued by Italian Government), today Sofia Macchi has decided to create a path that begins from his debut, putting a precious piece on exhibit: Testa di ragazza (Girl’s head) from 1982 in which we can see the first classical hint, from Degas to Medardo Rosso, detectable in the visible mark of the artist’s gesture. Another interesting piece is I paesaggi del cuore (The landscapes of the heart), dated 1984, but in which the poetry of the seed (a hallmark of the artist’s work in the years to come) is already strongly present. From Sedia di Zefiro (Zephyrus’s chair) dated 2011 to the classic seeds, from the lightness of Astrolabium (Astrolabe) to the Genesi (Genesis) and Dono di Nettuno (Nettuno’s gift) (where the exquisite play of the equilibria is combined with the need to delve into the material until the short circuit between the lacquered surface and the scabrous heart), from the almost alien forms of Sospiro del cosmo (Sigh of the cosmos) to the soaring verticalism of the very recent Fenice (Phoenix), the show twists and turns like a silent, hypnotic dance  in which the references to oriental tradition blend seamlessly with the memories of the great history of art: Piero della Francesca’s egg to Constantin Brancusi and Arnaldo Pomodoro.
The show is designed as an anthology and structured in a museum layout. In fact, the history of the artist, in addition to the works, is also told by a series of panels that specify the stages, through extracts of texts previously written on his work and by posters of his main solo shows.

A BILINGUAL CATALOGUE, in which the exhibited works are reproduced, and with the critical texts by curator Alessandra Redaelli and the journalist, Claudia Notargiacomo, will be produced by PUNTO SULL’ARTE. The artist will be present at the opening reception on Saturday, March 13. All visitors are invited to bring headphones and a smartphone for listening to the critical text and watch audio-visual equipment by using QR codes.

KYOJI NAGATANI was born in Tokyo (Japan) in 1950. He graduated from the Zoukei Arts University in Tokyo and was awarded with a degree from the Research Institute of the State University for the arts in Tokyo. In 1976 he graduated in bronze casting from the Tokyo University for the Arts. In 1978 he first moved to Italy to attend the Brera Academy in Milan and in 1981 he came back thanks to a scholarship from the Italian Government that allowed him to graduate from the Brera Academy in 1984 under the tutorship of Prof. Manfrini and Alik Cavaliere. Nagatani’s artworks soon gained international resonance and became part of many private collections. In 2000, the Jubilee year, he was commissioned a Coffer for guarding the keys of the Holy Door of the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano in Rome while in 2009 he won the Award of the Arts (sculpture sector) of the Circolo della Stampa in Milan – Associazione Culturale Indro Montanelli. Nagatani’s sensual and monumental compositions combine dream, poetry and art, offering themselves as an opportunity for aesthetic and critical reflection: Wind, Time, the Column, the Door, the Chair, Earth, Silence constantly return as keywords, to give rhythm to the titles of his works. The artist faces things from a philosophical, as well as a physical point of view. Living and working between Italy and Japan, the sculptor creates important monumental works, such as the Monument for the Hachioji Municipal Theater in Tokyo, Sedia del Vento for the Open Air Museum of Utsukushigahara in Nagano, Porta del Vento for the Hakone Open Air Museum of Sculpture, and three monuments for the Yoshikawa City Public Gardens (Saitama). Among the artworks created in Italy, Seme (2012) for the Bergamo Building School in Seriate (BG), the sculpture Viaggiatore del Tempo (2008) at Voghera Airport 829 and Trono del silenzio (1998) in Pioltello (MI) come to mind. In 2019 he created the evocative Porta della memoria (2009) in Chiesa in Valmalenco, Sondrio. He has taken part in many important exhibitions in Italy and abroad. In the month of May 2017, Nagatani exhibited in the evocative solo show “Semi del tempo” at PUNTO SULL’ARTE. He lives and works between Italy and Japan.