Yu Nagaba “Express More with Less”
I visited Yu Nagaba’s solo exhibition “Express More with Less.” The venue is Gallery Target in Harajuku.
The title “Express More with Less” (achieving richer expression through less information) captures the greatest characteristic of Yu Nagaba’s drawings. Minimal and cool, stylish yet somehow gentle — that is his work.
Yu Nagaba is well known for the drawings he made on ACE HOTEL notepads, but this exhibition featured many works painted on canvas.
Long ago, when overseas was still felt as somewhere distant, I remember admiring the amenities of foreign hotels and postcards used for AirMail. Yu Nagaba’s works, which take those objects as their supports, present a refined mastery in their simple linework and a strong sense of finish.
As if narrowing the distance to New York, his works felt reassuring, and combined with the endearing familiarity of the motifs, the experience of viewing them was a happy, heart-lifting one.
