On July 4, 2026,Lagobava Palazzo Pironi in Cannobio will open a solo exhibition by Japanese artist Tomoko Nagao, which will run through September 5. The exhibition, titled *Masterpieces Reinvented*, presents new works that synthesize some of the key themes of the artist’s practice.
The exhibition unfolds through a visual language rooted in contemporary graphic communication and digital image culture. The works are based on an iconic immediacy that evokes the structure of ideograms and construct a system of signs in which references to Western tradition are reworked according to a style defined as “micro-pop.”
The works also feature icons associated with contemporary commercial brands, incorporated into the compositions with an ironic—and in some cases satirical—tone. This juxtaposition creates visual dissonance that prompts a critical examination of the mechanisms of consumer society and the circulation of images in a global context.
Another central focus of his work concerns the relationship with nature. The exhibition features watercolors on paper characterized by fluid lines and light compositions, alongside small-scale sculptures conceived as animated presences. This references the animistic tradition of Shintoism—the culture of the artist’s origin—which informs part of her visual poetics.
Tomoko Nagao (Nagoya, 1976) has lived and worked in Milan since 2006. She initially studied in Nagoya and at the Bsemi Schooling System in Yokohama before moving to London in 2000, where she earned a Master of Fine Arts from Chelsea College of Art & Design in 2003.
Her exhibition debut took place in 1998 with a solo show at the Yuraku-Bashi Gallery in Tokyo. The following year, she received the Canon Prize in Tokyo for a photography project. Since 2006, in Italy, she has focused her artistic practice on painting and sculpture, developing a neo-pop style that led to her selection as one of the young artists featured in the international exhibition *Botticelli Reimagined*, organized at the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin and subsequently presented at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 2016.
Between 2018 and 2024, she took part in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Milan and Taiwan, where in 2024 she presented the exhibition *Kawaii Art History – Tomoko Nagao’s First Exhibition in Taiwan* at the CYCC in Taoyuan. That same year, she created a public art installation in Taipei consisting of a large colored cast-iron floor for the Taipei Dome. Her works for public spaces also include monumental sculptures installed at the Galleria Alberto Sordi in Rome and an inflatable installation conceived as a temporary installation at the Franciacorta Village in 2018.
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| Cannobio: At Palazzo Pironi in Lagobava, Tomoko Nagao’s micro-pop reinterprets Western masterpieces |
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