nca | nichido contemporary art is delighted announce its tenth group exhibition entitled “Identity X”.
In this exhibition series, we have so far asked museum and independent curators to organize shows on the theme of “identity.” Reaching a milestone with the tenth exhibition in the series, we have invited Kazuaki Watanabe to curate the show in order to introduce the point of view of “collectors,” who build their collections by selecting and purchasing works, becoming themselves curators that influence the international art scene. 

Watanabe operates a noodle company in Koriyama city, Fukushima prefecture, working as a comprehensive coordinator for restaurants, selecting everything from their concepts, taste, and interior design, and producing more than 200 types of raw Chinese noodles in accordance with the demands of customers. He regards contemporary art as the source of his creative ideas, and has been continuously collecting works by artists from all over the world for over thirty years, and has also been providing support and at times giving advice to young artists as a collector.

Having been stricken by the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, he built and opened the private viewing room Space W that simultaneously acts as storage space and exhibition space. Selecting and exhibiting works from his collection based on the theme of “regeneration | restructure,” Space W bespeaks of Watanabe’s strong will and feeling. In this exhibition, Watanabe will create a pavilion of Space W in the rooms of nca | nichido contemporary art. 

Artists: Yuki Iiyama, Akira Ishiguro, Yoichi Kamimura, Keita Sagaki, Goro Murayama

*image will be updated soon