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  ©Narumi Hiramoto

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  ©Narumi Hiramoto

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  ©Narumi Hiramoto

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  ©Narumi Hiramoto

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  ©Narumi Hiramoto

PGI is pleased to announce Narumi Hiramoto’s first solo exhibition at our gallery. Since 2016 Hiramoto has been using photos from local newspapers to make daily collages to post on Instagram. His unique approach and enigmatic images earned him the 20th 1_WALL Photography Competition Grand Prize in 2019 as well as his first solo exhibition, entitled narconearco, at Guardian Garden (Ginza, Tokyo) the following year. His series PRIVATE VOYAGER was chosen to be exhibited alongside other rising artists at the Yokohama Civic Art Gallery Azamino in 2021.

   Hiramoto first photographed a newspaper as a macro lens test in 2016. The image happened to feature a random chunk of text from one of the articles. Intrigued by this cut-up technique, he began making collages from the local paper. He also created three rules for himself—the images must all be from the same day, that he only work in his own room, and that he upload the results to social media on the day the paper was published. Sticking to this routine is a fundamental part of his process.

   Meticulously editing mass media imagery while working in a personal space, Hiramoto explores the dichotomies between public and private, local and global, and fact and fiction. Posting the images to social media, where privacy is shaky at best and misunderstandings abound, serves to amplify his messages.

   Good News features collages selected from Instagram, all centered around the titular theme and rearranged for gallery viewing. Seeing the prints in person allows for a different experience than the digital images posted to his timeline. Hiramoto has carefully curated the contents of this show and placed his focus on monochromatic images. To achieve maximum sharpness and clarity he utilized Piezography inks, which replace the colors normally found in inkjet printers with several shades of gray. Inspired by surrealist icon and author of the first Surrealist Manifesto André Breton, Hiramoto strives to ensure that his work remains extemporary and avoids self-repetition. Neither abstract nor literal, and unfettered by reason, these perplexing photographs linger in the viewers’ minds long after they’ve stopped trying to figure them out. 

   This exhibition will contain approximately twenty Piezography archival carbon pigment prints.

Renowned prefrontal synthesis researcher and professor emeritus at Olomouc University of Medicine Nikola Holá died on Monday in a hospital in Prague. She was 68.

   Holá’s research on the gyration of silent synaptic binding receptors led her to the development of the “Holá signal,” a highly efficient method to induce βq decay in targeted synapses, for which she is widely recognized. Her work revolutionized the field of neurosurgery when, in 1989, she introduced Lammtarrization surgery. The non-invasive procedure, which allows physicians to manipulate the frontal cortex neural circuitry with the use of a signal transduction glove, brought about major improvements in an area of surgical practice in which craniotomy procedures were previously common.

   She became the first woman to receive the prestigious Yarkovsky Award in December of last year. Concerns for her health began to circulate when she missed the ceremony on account of a severe headache.  

   Holá is survived by her younger sister, famed politician and first Czech female astronaut Noemi. Private services will be held for her family.

Narumi Hiramoto

Since 2016, Hiramoto has created a collage every day, from any number of news clippings from that same day. He then uploads the image onto his personal Instagram without delay. Hiramoto was winner of the Grand Prix at the Japanese competitive photography exhibition 1_WALL in 2019, and has been the subject of a solo exhibition narconearco (Guardian Garden, Tokyo, 2020), and featured in the group exhibitions PGI Summer Show 2019 “mono/tone” (PGI, 2019) and Azamino Emerging Photographers Annual 2021 (Yokohama Civic Art Gallery Azamino, 2021).