Courtyards, plants, the seasons, the smell of the air, light, the universe, animals, stuffed toys, children, rooms…all of these motifs found in Nagai’s works are things she has always had in her mind, familiar from childhood, dramatic moments in her daily life, dreamscapes, and so on. She connects them organically with her own unique perspective and imagination, making them resonate with each other like colorful puzzles, and inviting them into a new and free painterly space where all of creation radiates brilliantly as “unknown spaces of comfort, and scenery that one would like to see.”

Nagai uses oil paint, watercolor, ink, colored pencils, and various other materials to express her multilayered sense of materiality and intuitive brushstrokes. Her approach is distinctive in terms of how it does not limit her modes of expression, which span a wide range from painting and drawing to sculpture and stuffed animals. Her works often take the form of squares, circles, and polygons, some measuring over 5 meters in size, while others remain small enough to fit in the palm of one’s hand. The variety of Nagai’s works seems to reflect how she enjoys the act of creation itself, capturing the world from free, flexible perspectives in close-up, or seen from a wide angle.

Nagai’s worldview has won many fans both in Japan and abroad, and her works are in the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, among others. She has also been active in public spaces beyond the exhibition space, producing artworks for the NHK E-television programs “Sometimes Lost” and “Moyamoya,”, book illustrations for novels such as The Wise Man on the Hill, Tabiya Okaeri (Maha Harada, Shueisha Bunko, 2021), and the main visual for Kasumigaura Dōbutsu to Minna no Ie (Place for Everyone) (architect: Takahashi Ippei Office) that opened in July 2024 in Kasumigaura, Ibaraki Prefecture.

Tomoko Nagai was born in Aichi Prefecture in 1982. She graduated from Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music in 2006, majoring in Oil Painting.