Kohei Nawa is currently one of Japan’s most successful artists. I’m so rapt that one of his acclaimed “PixCell-deer” sculptures is in the permanent collection of the NGV International, the major state art gallery in my hometown of Melbourne, Australia. Various “PixCell-deer” are owned by institutions around the world including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

I celebrated Kohei Nawa in this piece for Escape magazine, produced in Tokyo.

Nawa maps the deer specimens by computer, then decorates them with crystal balls. He invented the portmanteau “pixcell” by combining the unit of a digital image (pixel) and the biological unit (cell). To me, the matrix of baubles on his “PixCell-deer” evoke metastasizing molecules, proliferating at hyperspeed like online data. 

More (and clearer) images are here: Kohei Nawa official website

I hope you can one day experience walking around a real “Pixcell-deer” in 3D!

Image: PIXCELL-DEER#60 2019 MIXED MEDIA 2124×1795×1550 MM. PHOTO: NOBUTADA OMOTE | SANDWICH