Preparatory room for
EUGENE MUSEUM in Bali
| Jakarta, Menteng

“Preparatory room for EUGENE MUSEUM in Bali” in Jakarta is a preparatory room for the construction of the Eugene Kangawa / EUGENE STUDIO’s museum facility underway.

*For detailed directions to the location, please refer to the access map.

Eugene Museum in Bali | 2026 | permanent museum

EUGENE STUDIO / Eugene Kangawa

EUGENE STUDIO Atelier iii (Japan, Reservation)

Digital Archive: Solo exhibition “EUGENE STUDIO After the rainbow”

About

Preparatory room for EUGENE MUSEUM in Bali

“Preparatory room for EUGENE MUSEUM in Bali” is a preparatory room for the construction of the Eugene (Eugene Kangawa / EUGENE STUDIO)’s museum facility underway in Bali. The main museum is in progress with the cooperation of esteemed partners. We would like to express our sincere respect and gratitude to the team at Jakarta Art Hub, as well as all those who have collaborated with us on this initiative.

The preparatory space that serves as the base for these creative endeavours is located in the central Menteng district of Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, only an hour and a half away from Singapore and Bali.

The room is situated on the top floor of the Jakarta Art Hub, a building at the heart of the local contemporary art culture and a thriving artistic community.

The preparatory room serves as the office for the museum team in Indonesia and plays a role in verifying various elements for the forthcoming main museum.

Preparatory room for EUGENE MUSEUM in Bali
Jakarta Art Hub / Photo © 2023 EUGENE STUDIO © 2023 YES__pte.ltd.
Left: Everything Shines (Sketch/Drawing) series, 2023
Oil on brass
Right: Drawing of Sea Garden (Everything Shines series), 2021
Wax oil pastel, oil on mirror

Since 2009, An annual contemporary art fair held in Jakarta, recognized as one of the fixe most significant art fairs in Southeast Asia, attracts artists, galleries, collectors, and art critics every year from around the world.

Everything Shines (Sketch/Drawing) series, 2023
Oil on brass
Preparatory room for EUGENE MUSEUM in Bali
Everything Shines (Sketch/Drawing) series, 2023
Oil on brass
Sea Garden 海庭: 1/3 scale model, 2023
Water, sand, mirrors

EUGENE STUDIO / Eugene Kangawa

Eugene Kangawa (寒川裕人) was born in US in 1989, known for his paintings and large scale installations, his past exhibitions include EUGENE STUDIO After the rainbow (2021-2022) at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, de-sport (2020) at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, 89+ (2014) at the Serpentine Gallery, London etc.
He is the youngest artist ever to hold a solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, which has hosted solo exhibitions by Japanese contemporary artists including Yayoi Kusama, Yoko Ono, and others. This exhibition, even during the COVID-19 pandemic, garnered significant attention with hours-long waits and thousands of people in line.

His early activities were summarized in 2017 in the book The Age of Art × Technology (written by Daisuke Miyatsu, Kobunsha Shinsho) as one of the four leading Japanese artists along with Team Lab and others. In addition, two short films released in the US in 2021 have been selected as Official Selection or won awards at several film festivals, including the Brooklyn Film Festival, Urbanworld Film Festival, Pan African Film Festival, Houston International Film Festival, Rhode Island International Film Festival, and other US Academy Award Qualifiers.

About

Eugene Kangawa / EUGENE STUDIO Atelier iii, Japan

*The interior of the preparation room, which is bathed in natural light, has been designed by the artist himself, much like Eugene's larger studio near Tokyo. (For more information and reservations, please visit this link. We are open to the public when the artist is not present. The latest updates can be found on Instagram.)

EUGENE STUDIO Atelier iii in Japan

The space, which has been renovated with minimal lighting made possible by numerous skylight windows, features several of Eugene’s iconic installations, including a small version of the mirrored sea artwork Critical/Sea Garden and sculptures of human figure titled Image/Imagine, which exist in a completely dark space. Additionally, several of his painting series are on display. The interior and furniture were designed under the supervision of EUGENE.

Left: Everything Shines (Sketch/Drawing) series, 2023 / Oil on brass
Center: Drawing of Sea Garden (Everything Shines series), 2021 / Wax oil pastel, oil on mirror
Right: For a certain family (White Painting series), 2019 / Canvas
Drawing of Sea Garden (Everything Shines series), 2021
Wax oil pastel, oil on mirror
15 × 10 cm
Drawing of Sea Garden (Everything Shines series), 2021
Wax oil pastel, oil on mirror
15 × 10 cm
Sea Garden 海庭: 1/3 scale model, 2023
Water, sand, mirrors
Sea Garden 海庭: 1/3 scale model, 2023
Water, sand, mirrors
Drawing of Sea Garden (Everything Shines series), 2021
Wax oil pastel, oil on mirror
15 × 10 cm
Preparatory room for EUGENE MUSEUM in Bali
Light and shadow inside me, 2022
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
Everything Shines (Sketch/Drawing) series, 2023
Oil on brass
Preparatory room for EUGENE MUSEUM in Bali
Preparatory room for EUGENE MUSEUM in Bali

The space is situated on the top floor of “Jakarta Art Hub.” Other floors house galleries from various countries, the headquarters of Art Jakarta, cafes, and other amenities. It has progressed to become the central hub for the local contemporary art scene and a thriving community.

Jakarta Art Hub / Photo © 2023 EUGENE STUDIO © 2023 YES__pte.ltd
Jakarta Art Hub / Photo © 2023 EUGENE STUDIO © 2023 YES__pte.ltd
Message from Eugene:

“The power of art is truly fascinating, and to me, art often seems to lead in various directions, connecting fates and taking me to distant places.

I believe that Indonesia is becoming an increasingly potent and sophisticated place. I’ve observed the vitality of life in each part of the country and caught a glimpse of many new possibilities in their lives. I remember being deeply inspired when I first visited the country, experiencing a dynamic momentum that was different from America, Europe, or Japan.

In Indonesia, there is a word ‘Nusantara,’ which means archipelago. As a Japanese who grew up in an island, I found this word intriguing.
In the heart of this diverse world, filled with opportunities, I aspire to play a role in sharing and spreading the region’s unique charm with a broader audience.”

—Eugene Kangawa

Eugene Kangawa
Photo: Asuka Yazawa © 2023 Eugene Kangawa
Preparatory room for EUGENE MUSEUM in Bali
Preparatory room for EUGENE MUSEUM in Bali
Everything Shines (Sketch/Drawing) series, 2023
Oil on brass
Everything Shines (Sketch/Drawing) series, 2023
Oil on brass

1Everything Shine Series (Drawing series)

Everything Shine Series (Drawing series)
Yellow flower field drawing, 2021
Oil, gouache, grease pencil on brass
305 × 600 cm
Everything Shine Series (Drawing series)
Magic hour, 2021
Oil on brass
26.4 × 35.3 cm
Private Collection

Everything Shine Series (Drawing series), 2021
Oil on brass / Oil, wax oil pastel on brass / Oil, gouache, grease pencil on brass / Brass, wood

This series of drawings is a rather special kind of “sketch diary” by Eugene Kangawa. Sometimes he directly sketches “landscapes/objects reflected in mirrors or brass metal,” and sometimes he enlarges the sketches and drawings based on them. It begins with the act of drawing what is reflected outside or inside from different angles.

Reflections cause light to appear from behind the paint, the ground and figure are frequently inverted, and the focus is never fixed.

Magic hour (evening, forest drawing) #12, 2021
Oil on brass
26.4 × 35.3 cm
Private Collection
Drawing #Double vision of a vase, 2021
Oil on brass
160.4 × 240.2 cm
Private Collection
Drawing #Double vision of a vase, 2021
Oil on brass
160.4 × 240.2 cm
Private Collection

2Sea Garden 海庭: 1/3 scale model

Sea Garden, 2021
Water, sand, mirrors

Sea Garden 海庭: 1/3 scale model, 2023
Water, sand, mirrors

The huge space is surrounded by mirrors on all sides, reflecting the waves of water, creating an endless horizon. The natural light from the 19-meter-high ceiling changes the appearance of the space dramatically depending on the weather and time of day.


— If the sea level were to rise, this would be the first place to sink beneath the waves.
I decided to bring the sea into this hall.
The real sea, water, needless to say, tsunamis, and sea level are significant entities, especially for us.

from the handout: EUGENE STUDIO After the rainbow
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo


In order to permanently archive the large installation Sea Garden, which caused a great response, Eugene himself made sketches of the work on site during the museum’s holidays. The technique of oil paint and pastel is taken from the artist’s Everything Shines series. Everything Shines is a series of sketches in which the artist traces and draws from a landscape reflected in the screen. While multiple viewpoints are concentrated on a single screen, the figure and ground are quickly and continuously reversed depending on the position of the viewer and the time of day, sometimes resulting in a completely different impression. The mirrors used in this work complicate the composition more than the brass by reflecting the surrounding environment.
Each drawing is given a “different sea” name. Each is the name of a “coined sea” and is printed on the bottom of the frame.
These are “new seas” that do not actually exist.

Sea Garden, 2021
Water, sand, mirrors

3Drawing of Sea Garden (Everything Shines series)

the Thriugh (sea), 2021
Wax oil pastel, oil on mirror
15 × 10 cm

4Image/Imagine #1 man

Image/Imagine #1 man, 2021
Statue

“Sculptural work seen by reservation only. This sculpture of a ‘person’ created by hand is a sculptural work that was created ‘in a state of complete darkness, where the statue is not visible at all during the entire process,’ and ‘neither the artist himself nor anyone else’ has ever seen it. Meaning, it is a sculptural work that ‘no one in this world has ever seen before.’
One by one, in a room of total darkness, each visitor was able to touch the actual statue. The substantial sculptural work accompanied by the intense experience attracted a great deal of attention, with reservations required and queues sometimes forming even before opening time. (The installation also took place in the dark. In other words, it is ‘a statue that no one has seen, nor will be able to see.’ No one involved in the museum was informed of the size or materials used. The title of the work in Japanese is ‘Souzou [which means imagine/Imagination]’ [in Japanese Kanji it means ‘[in your head] think of the statue’]).”

5Light and shadow inside me

Light and shadow inside me (untitled) #30, 2023
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
300 × 202 cm
Light and shadow inside me (untitled) #30, 2023
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
300 × 202 cm

Light and shadow inside me, 2021–
Gelatin silver print (photogram)

Light and shadow inside me is a signature series of two-dimensional works by Kangawa. In the original green works, paper is coated on one side with water-based dye, folded and fixed to form a polygonal prism, and exposed to sunlight for several weeks. Each face of the prism receives a different amount of sunlight depending on the direction of the sun’s rays, resulting in some areas fading faster than others to form a gradation of color. The fading process can be described as a “progression” in the sense that the dye changes color, or a “regression” in the sense that it brings the paper back to its original color. Furthermore, in their use of sun exposure, works from this series can be considered both paintings and photographs. The understated works, created with only their own light and shadows, offer a new perspective on the relationships between light and shadow, subject and medium, painting and photography, and beginning and end.
While the series is most known for its use of bright green dyes, “Power of Imagination” presents a new variant of black-and-white works which use silver halide photographic paper(*1). Like the bright green works that precede them, the black-and-white works are created by folding whole sheets of paper into polygonal prisms. However, the artist then takes the folded photographic paper into a darkroom and directly exposes it under light for several seconds(*2). Due to their distinct materiality and monumental size, the works are more than just ordinary photographs—in fact, they generate an imposing presence akin to paintings. By reproducing the photographic mechanism of recording and measuring light with only the most basic elements, Light and shadow inside me questions the existing boundaries that define art.

*1  Photographic paper is a type of paper that is coated with a light-sensitive material. In silver halide prints, an emulsion containing silver halide is used. The more light the paper is exposed to, the darker it becomes.

*2  A photogram is an image created without a camera, in which objects or materials are directly placed onto photographic paper and exposed to light. The resulting works are all unique as opposed to editioned.

Light and shadow inside me (untitled) #25, 2022–2023
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
120 × 100 cm
Light and shadow inside me
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
Left: Light and shadow inside me (untitled) #58, 2023
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
120 × 100 cm
Right: Light and shadow inside me (untitled) #42, 2023
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
259 × 202 cm
Left: Light and shadow inside me (untitled) #25, 2022–2023
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
120 × 100 cm
Right: Light and shadow inside me (untitled) #66, 2023
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
120 × 100 cm
Left: Light and shadow inside me (untitled) #42, 2023
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
259 × 202 cm
Right: Light and shadow inside me (untitled) #30, 2023
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
300 × 202 cm
Light and shadow inside me, 2022
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
Light and shadow inside me (untitled) #25, 2022–2023
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
120 × 100 cm
Private collection
Light and shadow inside me (untitled) #66, 2023
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
120 × 100 cm
Private collection
Light and shadow inside me (untitled) #58, 2023
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
120 × 100 cm
Private collection
Fold the paper, shape it into a polygonal prism, expose it to light.
Light and shadow inside me (untitled) #4, 2022
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
19 × 22.5 cm
Private collection
Light and shadow inside me (untitled) #3, 2022
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
19 × 22.5 cm
Private collection
Light and shadow inside me (untitled) #38, 2023
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
19 × 22.5 cm
Light and shadow inside me (untitled) #12, 2023
Gelatin silver print (photogram)
19.2 × 22.6 cm
Private collection

6For a certain family (from the White Painting series)

For a certain family, 2019
(from the White Painting series)
Canvas
33.3 × 33.3 cm
Private collection

For a certain family series (2017–)

The small For a certain family series (33.3 × 33.3 cm), works done within the community unit of a specific family, began with the creation of a piece for the family of a friend of his.
Portraits on consciousness, timeless portrait-like works are now in possession of more than one family.

The title of the work will officially be “a series of names of all the family members”. For example, “Anna, Ryo, Erika”.
And if there are more family members - for example, they have children - the title of the work would also change. There is flexibility in the concept of family.
This is the smallest form of commission work, but it is also a commission work that lasts forever.

For a certain family, 2019
(from the White Painting series)
Canvas
33.3 × 33.3 cm
Private collection

About the White Painting series

Juliette, Sandra, Mitch, Wills, Gillies, Ergas, Asheron, James, Lilly, Thomas. P, Elias, Sofia, Victoria, Mackay, Jamin, Amelius, Prince, Cathy, Valerie, Keiny, Peter, Dona, Sam, Zaret, Christina, Laurencie, Owel, James, Kairy, Frances, Thom, Sugay, Marien, Kinbary, Kalen, Morry, Callen, Mut, Elen, Bruno, Peter, Daele, Clara, Benjamin, Charlotte, Michael, Ryan, Ina, Diego, Javia, Candelas, Robin, Rucaro, Daniel, Rumi, Benney, Sarah, Emily, Jack, Peter, Kevin, Safiya, Trisha, Eric, Danielle, Paul, Floyd, Alexis, Carlos, Nydia, Samantha, Daniela, Michael, Dom, Matt, Todd, Ava, Cailin, Melissa, Kirby, Alexandra, William, McGuiness, Liliana, Francisco, Daniel, Patricia, Anna, Dalia, Ricardo, Diana, Maribel, Barbara, Gabriela, Cristel, Kenia, Lorenzo, Gladys, Alberto, Carlos, 2017
Canvas
160 × 160 cm
Private collection

White Painting series, 2017
Canvas

“— THE EUGENE Studio’s White Painting series […] transforming the canvases into nomadic shrines to love and memory… White Painting series returns the monochrome to its iconic if uncertain place between a portal and a thing.”

From “Passion in Monochrome” (2018)
by David Gears, an art critic who contributes his writing to October magazine and other publications.
Read full story


White Painting is only the collective name for the series, as each piece is titled with the names of the people who kissed the canvases - for instance, the names of about a hundred people.
There are two series of this work; one was done by calling out to people on the street in cities around the world (USA, Mexico, Italy, Taiwan...) and the other within a specific community unit such as “a certain family”.

White Painting series
Still from video

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Access

Jl. M.H. Thamrin Jl. Timor No.25, RT.9/RW.4, Dukuh Atas, Gondangdia, Kec. Menteng, Kota Jakarta Pusat, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta 10350