Loyal is proud to present Jean Nagai’s solo exhibition, Meet Us at the Wave Function. Nine paintings, rendered in intricate layers of pumice and acrylic with abstract dot compositions, are on view in the gallery’s ground floor space, marking the Los Angeles artist’s first solo exhibition in Europe.

Throughout his artistic career, Nagai’s paintings have been inspired by the complexity of nature, evoking the structure beneath everything. Through his rhythmic painting technique of abstract impasto pointillism, his paintings manifest this connectedness.

In quantum physics, a wave function can be a mathematical description of light that exists in wave form, however when the light is observed the wave becomes individual photon particles; thus light can be two things simultaneously. This observation in the quantum realm opens the possibility of multiple dimensions or a simultaneous invisible bond between two people that defies space and time. The exhibition Meet Us at the Wave Function plunges us outwards, both visually and metaphorically. Layers of paint and pumice build on the canvas, forming waves and particles while notes of the supernatural and natural hum in each painting, inviting introspective dives.

Nagai draws inspiration from the misty redwoods of the Pacific Northwest to which he was born, as well as his Japanese immigrant parents’ background in Shintoism. Nagai’s paintings emphasize the individual’s place within the whole, reminding us that nature has an inherent value independent of scale or its usefulness to human beings.

Spiritual traditions like Shintoism align closely with the environmental philosophy and social movement of deep ecology, both encouraging a profound reverence for nature. In Shinto belief, kami (spirits) inhabit natural elements such as rivers, trees, and animals; every part of the natural world has its own sacred value. This contrasts with perspectives that treat inanimate objects, like stones, as mere resources. In Iceland, a similar belief in spirits known as Huldufólk sees natural formations as homes for these hidden beings, influencing how the landscape is treated.

This fusion of the natural and supernatural has defined the artist since before his own birth. When his mother was pregnant with Nagai, a white cat appeared at his parents’ door. His father welcomed the cat inside and offered it milk. After finishing, the cat asked him if a baby was on the way. Such an experience is completely natural when seen through a Shinto or adjacent lens. Years later, when Nagai was a toddler, he leaned out of a window and plummeted three stories towards the earth below. His first memory is from this very moment, an awareness of a presence beside him as he experienced a surreal detachment, viewing the scene from above as if he had left his physical form. His mother, frantic and desperate, found he wasn’t breathing and rushed him to the hospital, fearing the worst. Miraculously, he was barely bruised.

Supernatural experiences like these can launch religious careers or draw some into madness. For Nagai, these experiences opened him to the connectedness of the supernatural in the natural. Nagai channels this way of viewing the world through his paintings, having developed an abstract technique of the serene repetition of color and dots using a rhythmic pointillistic technique. Waves of gradient blues flow across the canvas like shards of ice calving from a glacier, while dusty reds ripple outward along dotted paths. Meanwhile, the dynamic rhythms of his current home in Los Angeles echo through more winding, circuitous patterns, reflecting the energy of city life.

Overall, Nagai’s practice celebrates the connectedness of all things and emphasizes the relationship between scale and empathy. Just as the wave function suggests that quantum reality is shaped by observation, encouraging us to pause and ruminate on the multitudes within the universe and within each one of us.

JEAN NAGAI (B. 1979, Seattle, WA) lives and works in Los Angeles. Nagai received a BA from Evergreen State College (Olympia). Solo exhibitions include Sow & Tailor (Los Angeles), Over the Influence (Los Angeles), Chins Gallery (Bangkok), Pt2 Gallery (Oakland). Group exhibitions include LOYAL at El Royale (Los Angeles), Wing Luke Museum (Seattle), The Hole (New York), Red Arrow (Nashville), Mini Galerie (Amsterdam). Nagai has participated in the Tappan Collective residency (Los Angeles), and Stairwell Gallery (Providence) and historic RAIR (Roswell).