A new art space, seeen Harajuku, has opened in Tokyo’s Harajuku district. The building was designed by sculptor Kohei Nawa and Sandwich, the creative platform he leads. On November 1, 2026, the space inaugurated its exhibition program with Nawa’s solo exhibition, At Random, which runs through November 28.

Emerging from the streetscape of Jingumae in Harajuku, the building is defined by layers of fine vertical lines that form sweeping curves. Its dark exterior, with a subdued metallic sheen, shifts in light and shadow depending on the viewer’s position and the angle of illumination, giving the structure the presence of a monumental sculpture.




Inside, works ranging from Nawa’s signature series to new creations are presented across four floors and a stairwell. Although the architecture and artworks exist as distinct entities, they establish relationships through form, material, light, and the movements of visitors.

What distinguishes this exhibition is the inseparable experience of encountering art and moving through architecture. Nawa’s longstanding exploration of the relationship between matter and perception extends beyond the surfaces of sculpture into architectural space, creating new possibilities for experiencing his work.

Shading Drapes: A New Architectural Landmark Designed by a Sculptor

Designed by Kohei Nawa and Sandwich, seeen Harajuku is a four-story art space whose exterior is defined by a louvered façade known as Shading Drapes. Fine, continuous vertical lines follow gently curving surfaces, enveloping the building in a layered architectural skin.

Where conventional exterior walls often serve as clearly defined boundaries between inside and outside, the façade here takes on a sculptural presence of its own. Its overlapping curved forms lend depth to the building’s silhouette, revealing different configurations depending on the angle from which it is viewed.



Up close, each individual line catches the light, producing subtle gradations of shadow. What appears from a distance to be a continuous curved surface resolves, on closer inspection, into an accumulation of countless lines. This perceptual shift is particularly intriguing when considered in relation to Nawa’s sculptural practice.

Throughout his career, Nawa has approached the “skin” of sculpture as an interface connecting an object to the viewer’s senses. In his signature PixCell series, he transforms the appearance of objects by covering their surfaces with transparent spheres.

PixCell and Shading Drapes are, of course, expressions with different structures and purposes. Yet both suggest a shared formal interest in how the accumulation of small units across a surface can transform the perception of an object as a whole.



Inside, the building contrasts with its dark exterior through predominantly white exhibition spaces and walls shaped by curves and recesses. Numerous alcoves give the interior a cave-like depth and an intricate spatial outline, revealing different qualities as visitors shift their gaze and move through the space.

Here, architecture is not simply a neutral container for artworks. The curvature of the walls and the progression of spaces guide visitors’ movements, influencing how they encounter each work.

Situated in Harajuku and Omotesando, an urban environment dense with commercial spaces, fashion brands, and cultural activity, seeen Harajuku seeks to offer a place where visitors can momentarily distance themselves from the surrounding flow of information and stimulation, and engage more deeply with perception through creative expression.

This ambition is closely connected to the structure of Nawa’s inaugural exhibition, At Random.

Across Four Floors: Where Architecture and Art Respond to One Another

At Random brings together multiple series from Nawa’s artistic practice, distributing them throughout the architecture of seeen Harajuku. Sculptures, two-dimensional works, and installations occupy all four floors and the stairwell, allowing visitors to encounter the works as they move vertically through the building.

The exhibition explores configurations and methods of display that differ from conventional presentations of the individual works. Rather than arranging them chronologically or grouping them strictly by series, it creates loose connections through relationships among form, color, material, and imagery.

One of the clearest expressions of this relationship is a new iteration of Ether, installed at the center of the spiral staircase.

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A slender, silver-blue sculpture, fitted with a fisheye lens at its apex, rises through the center of the staircase, which was designed with the aperture of a camera in mind. Curving stairs and walls surround the work, while light falling on its surface casts shadows across the walls that differ in shape from the sculpture itself. The vertical form of the work contrasts with the curves of the staircase, while its metallic surface stands against the softer textures of the architecture. Together, sculpture and space accentuate one another’s forms. A soundscape by composer and sound artist adds another dimension, creating a layered experience that engages sight, touch, and hearing.

Installation view, At Random, seeen Harajuku, Tokyo, Japan, 2026
Photo: Nobutada OMOTE ©Kohei Nawa | Sandwich


The drawn lines of Plotter also resonate with the texture of the louvers covering the building’s exterior. The repetition of fine lines across the façade finds a visual counterpart in the exhibited works, revealing formal connections across different scales as visitors move from outside the building into its interior.

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The exhibition title, At Random, does not simply suggest disorder. In Nawa’s practice, images, materials, and textures continually intersect and influence one another, generating new forms and relationships. Combinations that may initially appear accidental reveal an underlying sense of organic connection.

In this exhibition, that approach extends beyond the relationships among individual works to encompass the experience of moving through the architecture itself.

PixCell: Transforming Perception Through the Surface of Matter

One of the key series for understanding Kohei Nawa’s practice is PixCell. Its name combines “pixel,” the smallest unit of a digital image, with “cell,” the fundamental unit of living organisms. By covering the surfaces of existing objects with transparent spheres, Nawa transforms how those objects are perceived.

The exhibition includes three-dimensional works incorporating familiar motifs such as sneakers, alongside other pieces whose surfaces are composed of transparent cells.

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The transparent spheres do not simply reveal the objects beneath them. Their curvature and overlapping forms magnify, refract, and partially distort colors and shapes. Viewers recognize the objects while simultaneously becoming aware of how their contours are transformed through the transparent spheres. By introducing an additional layer to an object’s surface, Nawa creates a shift between the physical object itself and the image we perceive.

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Alongside these sculptural works, visitors can also encounter expressions developed in two dimensions. Surfaces composed of accumulated cells reveal different qualities depending on viewing distance, angle, and lighting conditions. The experience of looking directly at matter overlaps with that of perceiving images generated through it.

This experience of seeing through a surface also connects to the encounter with the architecture of seeen Harajuku.

PixCell-Memorandum: Fragmenting and Reconstructing Urban Memories

Presented on the second floor, PixCell-Memorandum is a new work exploring the theme of “fragments of memory.” Photographs taken by Nawa in cities across Japan and abroad are fragmented and reconstructed into pixel-like images, their surfaces covered with countless transparent cells. Urban scenes once recorded by the camera are broken apart and recombined, transforming into images that differ from the original views.

Seen through the cells, certain parts of an image become more prominent while others grow less distinct. As the viewer’s perspective shifts, so too does the appearance of the work.

Installation view, At Random, seeen Harajuku, Tokyo, Japan, 2026
Photo: Nobutada OMOTE ©Kohei Nawa | Sandwich


Underlying this work is Nawa’s interest in the contemporary information environment. In an era when vast quantities of information circulate through the internet and social media, and AI generates new language and imagery, the information we encounter continually brings together different times, places, and the experiences of others. Memory, too, may exist not as a single continuous narrative but as something formed through the combination of disparate fragments.

In PixCell-Memorandum, this understanding of memory takes form through the fragmentation and reconstruction of photographs, together with the shifting visual effects produced by the cells. Crucially, the work does more than present a single, fixed image.

What appears changes according to where and how the viewer looks. The act of viewing itself becomes part of the process through which new images emerge.

Prism, Spark, and Throne: The Diverse Material Worlds of Kohei Nawa

Alongside PixCell and its related series Prism, At Random presents a diverse range of Nawa’s works, including Spark, Throne, and Biomatrix. The exhibition marks the first presentation of the Spark series in Japan. Throne, meanwhile, addresses the emergence of AI as a new form of intelligence.

Installation view, At Random, seeen Harajuku, Tokyo, Japan, 2026
Photo: Nobutada OMOTE ©Kohei Nawa | Sandwich


The Throne presented in this exhibition retains the form of the work specially exhibited inside the Louvre Pyramid in Paris in 2018, while its surface is covered in platinum leaf. In this way, the exhibition offers an opportunity to encounter works created at different stages of Nawa’s career within the new architectural setting of seeen Harajuku.

The galleries bring together sculptures with metallic surfaces, three-dimensional objects covered in transparent spheres, and works composed of black lines radiating outward, each distinguished by different materials and forms.

Installation view, At Random, seeen Harajuku, Tokyo, Japan, 2026
Photo: Nobutada OMOTE ©Kohei Nawa | Sandwich


What is particularly striking is how the works establish distinctive relationships within the space, even when they do not share the same materials or forms. Transparent spheres reflect light, while clusters of black lines introduce sharply defined contours into the surrounding space. The juxtaposition of animal forms and abstract structures also unsettles the boundary between figuration and abstraction.

In a darkened space, Biomatrix presents forms resembling ripples spreading across the surface of a liquid, offering an experience distinct from that of the brighter galleries.

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These shifts in the exhibition offer an opportunity to reconsider, from multiple perspectives, the relationship between the properties of matter and human perception that Nawa has explored throughout his career.

A New Meeting Point for Art and Culture in Harajuku

Seeen Harajuku aims to be more than just a facility limited to contemporary art exhibitions. In the future, it is envisioned as a place to accommodate diverse seeen Harajuku is not intended to function exclusively as a venue for contemporary art exhibitions. It is envisioned as a space for a wide range of creative activities, including fashion brand events, workshops, and lectures.

Harajuku and Omotesando are centers of fashion and commercial culture, yet the backstreets of Jingumae are also home to residences, independent shops, and galleries. Within this urban environment, seeen Harajuku aims to become a cultural and artistic hub where artists, creators, local communities, and visitors from Japan and abroad can intersect.

There is particular significance in opening the space with an exhibition by Kohei Nawa, who also designed its architecture.

By allowing visitors to experience the building and its artworks together, the inaugural exhibition suggests the kinds of creativity this space may accommodate and the new ways of encountering art it may make possible.

Installation view, At Random, seeen Harajuku, Tokyo, Japan, 2026
Photo: Nobutada OMOTE ©Kohei Nawa | Sandwich


Nawa’s works have long transformed familiar objects by altering their surfaces. At seeen Harajuku, that interest extends into architecture, where the relationships between artworks and the building continually shift as visitors move through the space.

Amid the constant flow of information and stimulation in Harajuku, seeen Harajuku creates a moment to look closely at the artworks and spaces before us, and to become more conscious of our own senses.

At Random is not only an opportunity to reflect on Nawa’s artistic practice to date, but also an invitation to consider where his expression may lead as it expands into the new scale of architecture.