“When I was a child, I often wondered how we know that we exist. I had a fantasy that we are all living in a giant creature’s dream that could end at any moment if he wakes up.”

As an adult, Seirin continues searching for those invisible things that make our physical and psychological existences possible. Her works are based on giving visual and physical structures to the spaces where internal and external matters communicate. She incorporates architectural, geometric, and organic elements to create structures around those mysterious phantom spaces that house the corporeal, mental, emotional, and spiritual components of life. 

Seirin Nagano is a mixed-media artist originally from Tokyo, Japan. After training as an oil painter in Japan, she moved to the U.S., where she earned her BFA in Fine Art and MFA in an interdisciplinary art program at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Her works have been shown in the U.S. and Japan including at the Rowe Gallery (Charlotte, NC), Mint Museum (Charlotte, NC), Electronic Arts Intermix (Chelsea, NY), Governors Island Art Fair (NYC, NY), Interstate Projects (Brooklyn, NY), and Glasshouse Project (Brooklyn, NY). She was awarded an Artist Residency at Goodyear Arts (Charlotte, NC) in 2019, and was featured in Charlotte Magazine's "Best of the Best" as the "Artist to Watch" in 2020. Her work has been commissioned for Camp North End's conference room (Charlotte, NC) and for a book, In Common Things (Toronto University Press). She currently lives and works in Charlotte, North Carolina, and teaches Japanese and its culture at the Department of Languages and Culture Studies at UNC Charlotte. She is the Director of Programs for Goodyear Arts, where she is also one of their Collective Artists.