Paintings' Attitudes (Thank You): Ei Arakawa-Nash (TBC)

Ei Arakawa-Nash, NEMESIS PAINTING (PURR … formance!), 2022, David Zwirner, New York

Photo: Santiago Felipe
Courtesy of the artist and David Zwirner

A collaborative exhibition between paintings by mostly New York painters and Ei Arakawa-Nash since the 2000s. By continuously working with others, the artist reconfigures the subjective “I.” The group performances within which Arakawa-Nash works emphasize and derive from the ever-present precarity of artworks. A stroke becomes a scenario, a canvas becomes an actor, and color becomes a chant. His disruptive performances transform the audience’s relationship with painting.

Ei Arakawa-Nash (b. in Fukushima, Japan) is a performance artist based in New York since 1998. He relocated to Los Angeles in 2019. His performances are created through collaborations with various people including contemporary artists. The means of these collaborations are diverse, with such figures physically participating as performers, and in other instances their works themselves making appearances. Arakawa-Nash’s act establishes the intersection between collaborations with other artists and the audience as his very practice.

Recent performances/exhibitions include; Turbine Hall at Tate Modern, London (2021); Artists Space, New York (2021); Honolulu Biennial (2019); Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf (2018); Sculpture Project Münster (2017); Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2017); The 9th Berlin Biennale (2016); Gwangju Biennial (2014); Whitney Biennial, New York (2014); Carnegie International, Pittsburgh (2013); The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2012).

Ei Arakawa-Nash, Mega Please Draw Freely, 2021, Tate Modern, London Photo: Rikard Österlund Courtesy of the artist and Tate Modern