Illustrator Hiroshi Nagai's light-up prints make their Kobe debut at Daimaru's art corner
Daimaru Kobe's seventh-floor Art Station is showing illuminated giclée prints by city-pop-era illustrator Hiroshi Nagai for the first time in the city, with a ¥220,000 flagship piece anchoring a two-week run.
Art Print Japan Co., Ltd. is showing illuminated giclée prints by illustrator Hiroshi Nagai at Daimaru Kobe's seventh-floor Art Station from 9 to 22 September, the format's first outing in the city, according to the company's own announcement. The flagship piece, a framed print titled Urban Stardust that lights from within, is priced at ¥220,000 including tax, with an autographed edition and original guitar picks offered alongside the standard run.
Nagai, born in Tokushima in 1947, is best known for the tropical, minimalist cityscapes he brought to album covers during Japan's city-pop era, including Eiichi Ohtaki's 1981 A Long Vacation and work for Southern All Stars, and has since collaborated with Paul Smith and Fender, according to the release.
Department stores lean on rotating one-artist shows like this to keep upper-floor art corners drawing repeat visitors between the bigger seasonal exhibitions that fill their event halls; giving a name already familiar from decades of poster and record-sleeve reproductions a format collectors have not been able to buy before, rather than another run of the same print, is what makes a well-worn artist feel like fresh news.