Iwasaki Nagi

Watercolor — seemingly ephemeral, yet stirringly eternal — is the chosen medium of painter Iwasaki Nagi. Greatly influenced by the ocean and its constant motions, Nagi commemorates the transient nature of the people, places and moments that occupy his enchantingly mystical environs. Reality, eloquently and skillfully depicted through Nagi’s strong technical abilities, delicately entangles with magical, charming abstraction, rich in imagination. The artist’s cerebral, pensive thoughts on contemporary art fuel his whimsical, colorful compositions, and are conjured through his purity of method and vision. “I could never escape from the fate of drawing pictures,” he explains. “My effort was similar to swinging a sword around in darkness, and after long time passed, the sword hit something. It was a picture in watercolors.” Through his watercolor works, Nagi frees a hidden intrigue, a fascinating true beauty otherwise concealed in ordinary moments.

Born and raised in Japan, Nagi has exhibited his work throughout his native country and abroad.