Exhibitions

Sawako Nasu Boogie Woogie for the Defeated

• November 4, 2026 (Wed) — January 23, 2027 (Sat)
• Open hours: Tue–Sat, 11:00–18:00
• Closed: Sun, Mon, and Public Holidays
• Winter Holidays: December 27 (Sat), 2026—January 4 (Mon), 2027
• Opening reception: November 4 (Wed), 17:00–19:00
• Art Week Tokyo: November 4 (Wed) — November 8 (Sun)
• During AWT: Open from 10:00. Also open on Sunday, November 8.

KEN NAKAHASHI is pleased to present Boogie Woogie for the Defeated, Sawako Nasu’s second solo exhibition at the gallery, on view from Wednesday, November 4, 2026, to Saturday, January 23, 2027.

Nasu paints on old canvases she has collected over many years. They bear scars and stains from transport and storage, along with traces left by their previous owners. While so many images today are consumed in digital form, these canvases continue to age like living bodies.

At her previous solo exhibition, Linus’ Blanket (2025), Nasu changed the works on view during the show, and the nail holes and labels left on the walls allowed memories of the past to coexist with hints of what was to come. In October 2026, at the Iemura Seminar Exhibition at Tama Art University, she exhibited paintings in a space lit only by natural light, exploring how painting relates to space, light, and time.

In this exhibition, Nasu again rotates works during the run of the show and makes use of natural light in the installation. Her installation abandons fixed ideas of up, down, left, and right, so the paintings seem to float freely, untethered to any particular place or form.

A key point of reference for the exhibition is Piet Mondrian’s unfinished final painting, Victory Boogie Woogie (1942–1944). Nasu is strongly drawn to the signs of hesitation that remain visible despite the work’s rigorous composition. For Nasu, the “traces of life” preserved in its unfinished state reveal what makes painting itself urgent and necessary. This sensibility is also evident in her own paintings. She builds up thin, gauze-like layers by applying and wiping away paint in light, repetitive motions, much like dusting. Rather than dividing the picture plane into sections, she allows contours to emerge from these overlapping layers. This approach resists any fixed state of completion and remains open to change.

The “defeated” in the exhibition title does not refer to winning or losing in the conventional sense. Instead, it describes an attitude: deliberately turning away from the idea of painting as an orderly march toward progress and completion, and edging forward uncertainly, as though backing away. It means setting aside efficiency and rationality and continuing to paint without a fixed outcome in mind. This attitude has a deeply felt rhythm all Nasu’s own, one that departs from the linear progression of time.

For Nasu, the timeworn medium of painting remains full of possibilities. We invite you to experience her latest works, painted to the unhurried rhythm of the defeated.

Sawako Nasu

Born in Tokyo in 1996. Completed a graduate course in painting at Tokyo University of the Arts, where she studied with Masato Kobayashi. Growing up in a theater family, Nasu developed unique spatial expressions during her involvement with stage art and direction. Focusing primarily on landscapes and portraits made by applying thin layers of oil paint, Nasu explores the potential of current painting expressions based on the theme of the difficulty of bridging contemporary life and art of the past. Selected solo exhibitions include Vestige (NISO, London, 2024), Linus’ Blanket (KEN NAKAHASHI, Tokyo, 2025) and Iemura Seminar Exhibition 2026: Placing Sawako Nasu’s Paintings in Space, Using Only Natural Light (Art-Theque Gallery Tama Art University Hachioji Campus, Tokyo, 2026). In 2026, Green Field (2024) entered the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo as Nasu’s first public collection.