An event featuring conversation and interactive experience

To commemorate Yoshiaki Nakamura’s solo exhibition “Cyborg Butterfly: Threshold” on June 5, 2026, a talk event with aesthetician, Asa Ito will be held on June 20.

Nakamura has explored communication through hearing and vision and has opened up new possibilities for dialogue with the self and with others. He has had sensorineural hearing loss since childhood. Although he completely lost his hearing once in 2000, a major transformation occurred in his perceptual world after receiving a cochlear implant in 2012, and this change is reflected in his current works.

The “Cyborg Butterfly” series presented in this exhibition contains built-in bone-conduction speakers, and by touching parts of the butterflies depicted in the works, visitors can physically experience, through vision, hearing, and touch, the transformation in sensation that the artist himself experienced.

Another series, “Threshold”, is a participatory installation that encourages introspection in the viewer and evokes the visualization of sound.

Participants will be able to touch the works and experience the sensations the artist feels from his perspectives.

Asa Ito, Nakamura’s conversation partner, specializes in aesthetics and contemporary art, and her research and public work reconsider what it means “to see” and “to feel” through themes such as the body, the senses, disability, and care. In this conversation, we hope audiences will enjoy the deep dive into a subject that closely examines changes in the body’s perceptual world.

We welcome you to experience the artworks on this rare occasion.

Event Information

Date and time: Saturday, June 20, 2026, 15:00-
Venue: Whitestone Ginza New Gallery (6-4-16 Ginza, Chuo-ku Tokyo, 104-0061, Japan)
Speakers: Yoshiaki Nakamura (Artist), Asa Ito (Aesthetician)
Admission: Free
Capacity: 20 people
Reservations and inquiries: cs@whitestonegallery.jp

Speaker Profiles

Yoshiaki Nakamura

Artist. Yoshiaki Nakamura completed his PhD in Japanese painting at Tokyo University of the Arts in 2015 and his MFA at Maryland Institute College of Art in 2020. Nakamura's artistic vision aims to foster interconnectivity among individuals, transcending their differences and forging a harmonious understanding. He employs various mediums, such as painting, sculpture, physical space, sound, and performance, along with crafting musical instruments from everyday objects to express his creativity.

Asa Ito

Aesthetician. Director, Future of Humanity Research Center, Institute of Innovative Research, Science Tokyo, and Visiting Scholar at MIT (2019). Specializing in aesthetics and contemporary art, she obtained her PhD in Literature from the University of Tokyo. Her major works include: How Do People Without Sight See the World? (Kobunsha), The Stuttering Body (Igaku-Shoin), The Remembering Body (Shunjusha), and Ethics of hands (Kodan-sha). Her work was recognized with the 42nd Suntory Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities in 2020.

Exhibition Information

Cyborg Butterfly: Threshold | YOSHIAKI NAKAMURA
Period: 2026.06.05 - 06.27
Venue: Whitestone Ginza New Gallery(6-4-16 Ginza, Chuo-ku Tokyo, 104-0061, Japan)
Opening hours: 11:00 - 19:00
Closed: Sunday, Monday

Please check the exhibition detail page for new information:https://www.whitestone-gallery.com/blogs/gallery-exhibitions/tyo-n-yoshiaki-nakamura-062026