The Japan Foundation has appointed queer Los Angeles–based performance artist Ei Arakawa-Nash to represent Japan at the Sixty-First Venice Biennale, to take place May 9–November 22, 2026.
Arakawa-Nash was born in Fukushima, Japan, in 1977 and from 1998 to 2019 lived and worked in New York before moving to LA, where he is professor in the graduate art program at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California.
Having worked to advance performance art internationally since the early 2000s, he seeks to erase the boundary between audience and performer and to destabilize the subjective “I” in his practice, which often appears improvised and frequently involves collaboration. Among his influences are Gutai, Tokyo Fluxus, Happenings, Judson Dance Theater, and Viennese Actionism.
Arakawa-Nash’s participatory installation Mega Please Draw Freely was presented at Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, London, in 2021, and will be on view for six months beginning this July at Haus der Kunst, Munich, as part of the exhibition “For Children. Art Stories Since 1968.”
Arakawa-Nash says: "I thought I would never have a chance to represent Japan at the Venice Biennale after I gave up my Japanese nationality a few years ago. I am excited about this opportunity to converse with historical performances at the Biennale, such as Kusama’s guerrilla performance in 1966 or the space Rei Naito presented in 1997."
He continues: "Since the pandemic, the selection process for the Japan Pavilion has drastically changed. Now, the artist chooses a curator and runs around for fundraising. This task of representing the country is getting more complicated. But from a different perspective, this means the artist has more agency to turn their ideas into a show. Like Dumb Type and Yuko Mohri, the previous artists, I want to bring something new and open in terms of the administration and history of exhibition-making at the Japan Pavilion.
Now, my husband and I busily raise two children who are new members of the Asian diasporic community in Los Angeles. Recently, we re-watched the 1962 film “Being Two Isn't Easy,” written by Natto Wada. Her script will be a reference point for my performative engagement at the Pavilion in 2026."
Main Image: Photo: Ricardo Nagaoka
Anna Melnykova, "Palace of Labor (palats praci), architector I. Pretro, 1916", shot with analog Canon camera, 35 mm Fuji film in March 2022.
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