Image: Nagano Prefectural Art Museum
The Nagano Prefectural Art Museum has opened ‘NAM Collection 2026, Part II’, a presentation centred on recent acquisitions by contemporary artists Yoichi Umetsu and Hideki Nakazawa. The exhibition runs from August 21 to November 17, 2026, in the Collection Exhibition Room on the second floor of the museum’s main building in Nagano, Japan.
The presentation forms part of the museum’s year-round collection displays, which draw on works associated with Nagano Prefecture and images of the Shinshu landscape while spanning genres including Western-style painting, Japanese painting and craft. For the 2026 second period, the museum is placing works by Umetsu and Nakazawa at the centre of a display that also includes landscape paintings and selected craft works.
The museum expanded its collecting policy following its 2021 reopening to include “important works in the history of modern and contemporary art in Japan and overseas,” according to the exhibition information. During fiscal 2025, it acquired works by Umetsu, whose practice encompasses painting, ceramics, prints, video and writing, and by Nakazawa, who works across a range of media and methods. The exhibition presents 15 works by Umetsu, including painting, print and ceramic pieces acquired the previous year.
Umetsu also operates the private school Paraproom Yobiko and Paraproom Gallery, alongside his studio and writing activities. The museum describes his work as addressing the point at which art comes into being, approaching both the contents of artworks and the institutions and infrastructures surrounding them. Works on view include ‘Sakka to Kōjin’ (‘Artist and Craftsman’), a 2023 etching, lithograph and acrylic work on paper, and ‘Bottle Mail Ship’, a 2022 ceramic piece.
Nakazawa began making art while studying medicine at Chiba University and continued producing work while working as an ophthalmologist. The museum’s account states that he changed his professional title to artist in 1997. His practice has used acrylic, sculpture, computer graphics and brainwave data, among other forms. The exhibition includes ‘Sangomoku Sanjūgoro no Banjo Hōseki Kaiga Daiichi-ban’, a 1999 work made with Go stones, PVC film, acrylic and a wooden stand. Its subject is the Go position known as ‘seki’, in which neither player can capture the other’s stones without losing by attempting to do so. The museum relates this tense condition to opposing structures including atomism and idealism, and theories of colour and form.
Additional displays feature landscape works held by the museum and craft objects by artists including Yasunari Matsui and Seiko Takeda. Listed works include Tatsushiro Takahata’s ‘Asama Enbō’, a 1975 oil painting, Tsuyoshi Usui’s ‘Shunjū Kōraku-zu’ right-hand screen, ‘Autumn’, and Takeda’s ‘Natsuyamano’, made in glass. The museum is also scheduled to hold a gallery talk on October 17. Opening hours are 9am to 5pm, with entry to the exhibition rooms until 4:30pm; the museum is closed on Wednesdays, except September 23, with September 24 closed instead. Admission to the collection exhibition is ¥700 for adults, with free entry for high-school students and younger visitors.
