Contemporary Art Gallery

Rei Naito: on this bright Earth I see you

July 28, 2018, to October 8, 2018 9:30-18:00 / 9:30-17:00

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Contemporary artist Rei Naito’s work asks us “Is our existence on the Earth a blessing in itself?” Her installations have earned critical acclaim at home and abroad, distilling our existence on Earth—in which we receive inexhaustible nature, such as light, air, wind, water, and gravity, and the colors and sounds they produce—into the form of a quiet yet certain hope. To date, she has produced permanent works that respond to nature and architectural space, such as Being Given (Kinza, Naoshima, 2001) and Matrix (Teshima Art Museum, 2010), and she has also had exhibitions at historical sites including Karmeliterkloster in Frankfurt am Main (1997) and Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, Tokyo (2014).

This will be her first domestic solo exhibition since 2014, and her largest one to date. In this presentation, Naito, who has come to treat light itself as a primary source in her work, creates spaces from natural light alone for the first time. In these spaces we can gaze at “scenes of our Earth-bound existence” where light, life, and art cannot be distinguished from one another.

Naito says that one time she became aware of “the unconscious activity of those (myself) who are within Earth-bound existence stepping outside existence, taking on the gaze of the other, and gazing within existence,” and came to feel that “it seems we are being gazed at from afar, and are receiving grace.” Taking the rich natural light that changes throughout the day as its basis, this exhibition presents itself as both a site of exchange between the deceased, those who will come to be born, the flora and fauna, the spirits, and us who exist on the Earth; and as a space that makes sensible the enduring continuity maintained by the stirrings of nature and by us.


- In line with the artist’s objectives, this exhibition deals exclusively with natural light. Accordingly, starting September 1st the exhibition opening hours will change, with the usual closing time of 18:00 shifting to 17:00 (last entry by 16:30).