Naoki Kimura Solo Exhibition "Nagi-Rei Lullscapes - Before It Begins ∶ Zero - Horizon Photographic Art" Opens June 12 at Sho+1

Sho+1 will hold the second solo exhibition by internationally active photographic artist Naoki Kimura, "Nagi-Rei Lullscapes – Before It Begins ∶ Zero – Horizon Photographic Art," from Friday, June 12, to Saturday, July 4, 2026.
An opening reception will be held on Thursday, June 11, from 18:00, and an artist talk on Saturday, June 20, from 13:00.

"Before an image is visible, something has already begun."
If an image does not begin, what emerges?
In this exhibition, "Nagi-Rei," Naoki Kimura quietly deconstructs the very premise of photography.
Rather than negating the image, he traces back to the moment just before it, attempting to present the conditions of the state of "seeing" itself, before it is fixed as a subject, composition, or meaning.
The stillness in "Nagi-Rei" is not mere silence.
It is a tension that persists without a clear declaration, a state that continues without asserting anything, yet never ends.

Through years of creating monochrome works, Kimura has continuously explored the nature of perception and space before an image is fixed.
"Zero-Horizon" is a structural perspective on the nature of vision that has gradually taken shape from this long practice.

This exhibition is composed of the following four sections:

Fragments / Resonances / Interference / Remains
・Fragments ― faint, fragmentary signs before they coalesce into an image
・Resonances ― things that maintain a relationship and quietly persist
・Interference ― where structure wavers and coherence breaks down
・Remains ― what continues to linger after something has withdrawn, eventually bearing a quiet return to zero ("Return to Zero")

At the core of this exhibition is the perspective that Kimura calls "Zero-Horizon."
It is not to be interpreted as a theory, but a point where the image has no self-assertion yet—a horizon before genesis, so to speak.

The works do not depict subjects; instead, fragments of light, surface, and space emerge but remain unfixed as a single image.
They are composed through changes in relationships such as emergence, interference, and rupture, guiding the viewer into a field of perception that never settles.

Against the backdrop of his creative activities centered in Italy, Kimura's monochrome works strip photographic expression down to its extreme. Light hesitates rather than illuminates; form drifts rather than solidifies; the image refuses completion.
The works do not capture, do not narrate, and do not conclude. They simply remain there.

Rather than "what to see," the exhibition asks "how seeing begins and where it remains unfixed." It invites viewers into a field of quiet fluctuation.

We look forward to your visit.

Artist Statement

Monochrome photographs arranged in a serene space. They capture moments, yet somehow leave an impression of incompleteness. The new exhibition "Nagi-Rei Lullscapes – Before It Begins ∶ Zero – Horizon Photographic Art" is an attempt to re-examine the inherent potential of the photographic medium.

For a long time, photography has been treated as a means of fixing the world as an image. Moments are cut out, framed, and fixed. Meaning accumulates around what has already been identified.

But before perception is fixed, other conditions already exist. They are not outside photography, but within photography itself.

For many years, I have continued my practice of monochrome photography through light, distance, air, urban space, and the unstable relationship between presence and disappearance. The works gathered in this exhibition do not move toward spectacle or narrative resolution; they remain in a threshold where image, perception, and spatial relationships are not yet fully stable.

The structure I later came to grasp as "Zero-Horizon" is not a negation of photography. Rather, it is an attempt to re-examine the conditions under which photographic existence emerges.

Here, photography is treated not as mere representation but as a "structure of relationships." Light does not exist simply to illuminate the subject. Space does not function as a background. What appears as an image continues to fluctuate between generation and suspension.

This exhibition is composed of multiple sections such as Fragments, Resonances, Interference, and Remains. These are not thematic classifications but different sets of conditions that show how continuity, instability, residue, and perceptual tension are visualized within the photographic field.

"Nagi-Rei" is not aimed at transcendence or symbolic interpretation. It is an attempt to question whether photography can still touch the state before images, air, relationships, and perception are reclaimed by fixed interpretations.

In that unstable state, photography is not yet fully finished. Perception is the same.

Artist Profile

Naoki Kimura spent his childhood in Nishijin, Kyoto, and moved to the United States in 1987 to pursue photography as an artistic expression.
Currently, he works as a photographic artist exploring the presences and relationships that emerge in the interstices of light and shadow, time and space, based on his concept of "Nagi (Lullscapes)." The characteristic of monochrome photography to abstract reality and quietly bring forth the contours of existence has consistently been the core of his expression.
After moving to the US, he based himself in New York while intensifying his production in Europe. In his series centered on Italy, he captures architecture and urban spaces not merely as subjects for documentation but as "fields" where the accumulation of time and the echoes of memory linger, developing a unique monochrome expression. He has also collaborated with architects on series in the past.
Around 2017, he moved his base of activities to Tokyo. Building on the sense of "field" deepened through his work in Europe, he has expanded his production to explore the relationships where light and shadow, time and silence intersect. In recent works, his focus has shifted from depicting the subject itself to the presences that exist before an image is fixed and the quiet fluctuations just before they transition into recognition.
In recent years, based on the "Zero-Horizon Photo Art Theory" and "Shado," he has been developing creative and theoretical activities that reconsider photography not as a "reproduction of the subject" but as the very condition where existence and perception intersect.

Naoki Kimura
Instagram: @cogito0ergo0sum
Website: https://www.naokikimura.com/home-j

Exhibition Overview

Naoki Kimura Solo Exhibition: Nagi-Rei Lullscapes – Before It Begins ∶ Zero – Horizon Photographic Art
Period: Friday, June 12, 2026 – Saturday, July 4, 2026
Venue: Sho+1

Opening Reception: Thursday, June 11, 2026, 18:00~
Artist Talk: Saturday, June 20, 2026, 13:00~