Koji Nakazono

  • Installation view from “Koji Nakazono: Soulmate” at Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Kagawa, Japan, 2023 ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family photo by Kenji Takahashi
  • Installation view from “Koji Nakazono: Soulmate” at Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Kagawa, Japan, 2023 ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family photo by Kenji Takahashi
  • Installation view from “Koji Nakazono: Soulmate” at Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Kagawa, Japan, 2023 ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family photo by Kenji Takahashi
  • Installation view from “Koji Nakazono: Soulmate” at Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Kagawa, Japan, 2023 ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family photo by Kenji Takahashi
  • Installation view from “Koji Nakazono: Soulmate” at Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Kagawa, Japan, 2023 ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family photo by Kenji Takahashi
  • Installation view from “Koji Nakazono: Soulmate” at Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Kagawa, Japan, 2023 ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family photo by Kenji Takahashi
  • Installation view from “Koji Nakazono: Soulmate” at Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Kagawa, Japan, 2023 ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family photo by Kenji Takahashi
  • Installation view from “Koji Nakazono: Soulmate” at Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Kagawa, Japan, 2023 ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family photo by Kenji Takahashi
  • Installation view from “Koji Nakazono: Soulmate” at Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Kagawa, Japan, 2023 ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family photo by Kenji Takahashi
  • Installation view from “Koji Nakazono: Soulmate” at Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Kagawa, Japan, 2023 ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family photo by Kenji Takahashi
  • Installation view from “Koji Nakazono: Soulmate” at Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Kagawa, Japan, 2023 ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family photo by Kenji Takahashi
  • Installation view from “Koji Nakazono: Soulmate” at Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Kagawa, Japan, 2023 ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family photo by Kenji Takahashi
  • Installation view at ANB Tokyo, Japan, 2021, photo by Kenji Takahashi ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • Installation view at ANB Tokyo, Japan, 2021, photo by Kenji Takahashi ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • Installation view at ANB Tokyo, Japan, 2021, photo by Kenji Takahashi ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • Installation view at ANB Tokyo, Japan, 2021, photo by Kenji Takahashi ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • Installation view at ANB Tokyo, Japan, 2021, photo by Kenji Takahashi ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • Installation view at ANB Tokyo, Japan, 2021, photo by Kenji Takahashi ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • Installation view at ANB Tokyo, Japan, 2021, photo by Kenji Takahashi ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • Installation view from "Koji Nakazono: On the Edge—Places I wanted to see " at Yokosuka Museum of Art, Kanagawa, Japan photo by Kenji Takahashi ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • Installation view from "Koji Nakazono: On the Edge—Places I wanted to see " at Yokosuka Museum of Art, Kanagawa, Japan photo by Kenji Takahashi ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • Installation view from "Koji Nakazono: On the Edge—Places I wanted to see " at Yokosuka Museum of Art, Kanagawa, Japan photo by Kenji Takahashi ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • Installation view from "Koji Nakazono: On the Edge—Places I wanted to see " at Yokosuka Museum of Art, Kanagawa, Japan photo by Kenji Takahashi ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • Installation view from "Koji Nakazono: On the Edge—Places I wanted to see " at Yokosuka Museum of Art, Kanagawa, Japan photo by Kenji Takahashi ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • Untitled c.2012 or 2013 oil on canvas 194.0 x 162.0 cm ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • 中園孔二 Koji Nakazono 無題 Untitled 2012 oil on canvas 194.0 x 194.5 cm ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • 中園孔二 Koji Nakazono 無題 Untitled 2012 oil on canvas 227.5 x 182.0 cm ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • 中園孔二 Koji Nakazono 無題 Untitled 2012 oil on canvas 194 x 130.5 cm ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • Untitled, 2012, 194.0 x 194.5 cm, oil on canvas ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • Installation view at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2016 ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family photo by Kenji Takahashi
  • Installation view at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2016 ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family photo by Kenji Takahashi
  • Installation view at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2016 ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family photo by Kenji Takahashi
  • untitiled 2014 oil on canvas 65.5 × 46.0 cm ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • untitiled 2014 oil on canvas 65.5 × 46.0 cm ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • untitiled 2013 oil on canvas 61.0 × 60.5 cm ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • 中園孔二 Koji Nakazono 無題 untitled 2015 oil on canvas 30 x 30cm ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • 中園孔二 Koji Nakazono untitled 2014 oil on canvas 41.0 x 27.5 cm ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • Installation view from "The Way of Painting" at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo, 2014
  • Installation view from "The Way of Painting" at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo, 2014 ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • Installation view from "The Way of Painting" at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo, 2014
  • Installation view from "The Way of Painting" at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo, 2014 ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • 無題 Untitled 2012 crayon on wood panel 194.0 × 162.0 cm ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • Installation view at 8/ ART GALLERY/ Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2014 ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • Installation view at 8/ ART GALLERY/ Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2014 ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • Installation view at 8/ ART GALLERY/ Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2014 ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • Installation view at 8/ ART GALLERY/ Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2014 ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • Installation view at 8/ ART GALLERY/ Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2014 ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • Installation view at 8/ ART GALLERY/ Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2014 ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • 中園孔二 Koji Nakazono 無題 Untitled 2014 oil on canvas 53.5 x 45.5 cm ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • 中園孔二 Koji Nakazono 無題 Untitled 2014 oil on canvas 61.0 x 45.5 cm ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • Installation view at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2013 ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • Installation view at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2013 ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • Installation view at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2013 ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • Installation view at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2013 ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • Installation view at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2013 ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • Installation view at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2013 ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • Installation view at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2013 ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • 中園孔二 Koji Nakazono 無題 Untitled 2013 oil on canvas 61.0 x 41.0 cm ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • 中園孔二 Koji Nakazono 無題 Untitled 2013 oil on canvas 100.0 x 100.0 cm ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • 中園孔二 Koji Nakazono 無題 Untitled 2012 oil on canvas 46.0 x 38.0 cm ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • 中園孔二 Koji Nakazono 無題 Untitled 2011 oil on canvas 46.0 x 38.0 cm ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • 中園孔二 Koji Nakazono 無題 Untitled 2010 crayon on wood panel 72.5 x 60.5 cm ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family
  • 中園孔二 Koji Nakazono 無題 Untitled 2009 crayon on wood panel 41.0 x 31.5 cm ©Koji Nakazono, Nakazono Family

Koji Nakazono was born in 1989 in Kanagawa, and died in July 2015 (at 25 years old). He graduated from the Oil Painting course of Tokyo University of the Arts in 2012. In the same year he was selected for “Art Award Tokyo Marunouchi 2012” and received the Tomio Koyama Award and the Audience Award.
He held solo exhibitions at Tomio Koyama Gallery in 2013 and at 8/ ART GALLERY/ Tomio Koyama Gallery in 2014. His first museum solo exhibition was “Koji Nakazono: On the Edge—Places I wanted to see “ at Yokosuka Museum of Art, Kanagawa in 2018.

His works were exhibited at “The Way of Painting” Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo, 2014, “NEW VISION SAITAMA 5 The Emerging Body” at The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama In 2017, “Japanorama: New Vision of JAPAN from 1970” at Centre Pompidou-Metz, France in 2017,  “7th Moscow International Biennale of Contemporary Art: Clouds⇄Forests” at New Tretyakov Gallery Moscow, Russia in 2017, “DESIRE: A REVISION FROM THE 20TH CENTURY TO THE DIGITAL AGE” at Irish Museum of Modern Art in 2019.

His works are included in the public collection of , The Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura & Hayama, the Museum of Modern Art Tokyo, Takamatsu Art Museum. 

Nakazono’s work amazes us for its prolificacy at his age and its variety in expressions. From a painterly work with the rich brushstrokes of a wide dancing brush, to an intense flood of colors and lines of crayon as if the artist were possessed by something. He also employed various media – linen, board and canvas. By covering all over the surface in an abstract way he limited the depth of the background, and by arranging multiple motifs such as unique figures in layers he is able to create pictorial space with perspective in only a limited area. Wavering motifs come to acquire images, and once they do they start flickering again. Adventurous, idiosyncratic and rich landscapes appear.

8/ tv documentary video at Koji Nakazono exhibition, 2014
https://vimeo.com/101279295
*This video has sounds. Please note the volume may be large.

director : Masaya Suzuki
filmed by : Shintaro Yamanaka
music by : yuichi NAGAO
presented by : Shibuya Hikarie 8/

Solo Exhibition

2023 Koji Nakazono: Soulmate” Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Kagawa, Japan
2021 Every Surface is Facing This Way” ANB Tokyo, Japan
2018 “Koji Nakazono: On the Edge—Places I wanted to see” Yokosuka Museum of Art, Kanagawa, Japan
2016 Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2014 8/ ART GALLERY/ Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2013 Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

Group Exhibition

2023 “Yearning for Visions: From Kaita Murayama and Shoji Sekine to Present Times” Taro Okamoto Museum of Art, Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan [traveled to Ashikaga Museum of Art, Tochigi, Japan, 2023; Kurume City Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan, 2023; Kuma Museum of Art, Ehime, Japan, 2023; Hekinan City Tatsukichi Fujii Museum of Contemporary Art, Aichi, Japan, 2024]
2022 “Art & New Ecology” The University Art Museum, Tokyo University of the Arts, Tokyo / The 5th Floor, Tokyo, Japan
“OKETA COLLECTION: THE SIRIUS” Spiral Garden, Tokyo, Japan
2021 “Permanent Collection 3rd term 2021” Takamatsu Art Museum, Kagawa, Japan
2020 “Face” Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
“Museum Collection: From Van Gogh to Nakazono” The Museum of Modern Art, Hayama, Japan
Takamatsu Art Museum Collection + “Body and Movement” Takamatsu Art Museum, Kagawa, Japan
2019 “DESIRE: A REVISION FROM THE 20TH CENTURY TO THE DIGITAL AGE” Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), Dublin, Ireland
“MOT Collection Part 1&2: Please to meet you. New Acquisitions in recent years” Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Japan
2017 “Special Project Commemorating the 130th Anniversary of Tokyo University of the Arts” The University Art Museum, Tokyo University of the Arts, Tokyo, Japan
“Japanorama. A new vision on art since 1970” Centre Pompidou-Metz, France
“7th Moscow International Biennale of Contemporary Art: Clouds⇄Forests” New Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia
2016 “NEW VISION SAITAMA 5 The Emerging Body” The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, Japan
2014 “The Way of Painting” Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2012 “Art Award Tokyo Marunouchi 2012” Gyoko-dori Underground Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
“Masanori Tomita / Koji Nakazono” TURNER GALLERY, Tokyo, Japan
2011 “Oi no Ushinbo” Kudanshita Aterier, Tokyo 2011, Japan
2010 “Works in Weird Space” GENBAGEN, Kanagawa, Kamakura, Japan
“Koji Nakazono Yuki Hirai” LOOP HOLE, Tokyo, Japan
“OXYMORON” Tokyo University of the Arts, Tokyo, Japan
“JUMBLE SYM” TURNER GALLERY, Tokyo, Japan

2012 “art award tokyo marunouchi 2012” Tomio Koyama Prize & Audience Prize

Public Collection

Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
The Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura & Hayama
Takamatsu Art Museum

Publishing

2023 “Koji Nakazono: Soulmate”, Bijutsu Shuppan-sha Co., Ltd.
“Gentle Ghost: In Pursuit of the Painter Koji Nakazono”, Shinchosha Publishing Co., Ltd.
2018 “Koji Nakazono: Places I wanted to see”, Kyuryudo Art Publishing Co., Ltd.