“Megumi Nagai’s delightfully inscrutable paintings inspired by traditional Japanese fables of the spirit world coupled with her fecund imagination are a real treat. Fantastical and magical, these richly toned renditions on wood exert a sort of mythic power on the viewer. For example, the image of a one-eyed figure (which could be a Buddha, a monster, or a creation of Nagai’s mind) seated on a bed of brilliantly rendered ocher and red flames that crown his head and fume out of his nostrils and mouth in dream in a dream 111 (2004) makes you imagine an ancient pagan ritual. Nagai’s paintings, which she says originate in her dreams, reverberate with a primal energy even as they are very meticulously created.

The Japan-born artist’s work is populated by witches, spirits, goblins, elephant, and Buddha-like depictions along with ferocious, folklorish-looking creatures such as dragons and snakes. Into this bizarrely disturbing underworld, she brilliantly weaves in surrealist images of fragmented arms and legs in dance-like gestures, which greatly add to the mystique and power of the paintings. For example, in the superb composition Night Goblins 111 (2002), she has interwoven the image of a snake-like creature along with fragments of arms into a red-hot blaze.

With flames, sharp teeth, and piercing eyes, the paintings appear to be infused with subliminal anger as well as a strong feminist critique. The women characters in her work challenge traditional notions of femininity by being intrepid, savage, and sexual. This becomes particularly evident in the painting of a mountain witch titled Yama Uba (2004) where she is not just a nurturer cradling a small animal in her arms but also a wild, possibly destructive being, with her raging hair, fangs, and powerful expression on her sturdy face.

While there is definitely something subtly unsettling about Nagai’s works, it all seems to be done with a sly smile and a profound sense of the absurd. In the sterile, orderly space of a gallery, her free associative paintings of gods, demons, and strange creatures appear to mock all of the stringent structures of modern civilization and remind us that beneath our neat surfaces there lies an untamed, turbulent, and timeless reality.”

— Priya Malhotra, Asian Art News

“Since its inaugural exhibit last spring, the Carol Shen Gallery has already become one of Packer’s most dynamic new spaces. On April 13, 2005, the gallery officially opened its most ambitious venture of the year, ‘night goblins - Paintings by Megumi Nagai.’

‘This exhibit is the centerpiece and the touchstone of a year-long, multi-cultural look at Japan,’ says Ken Rush, visual art teacher, and coordinator of the Carol Shen Gallery.

‘Megumi Nagai’s work is grounded in the culture of Japan,’ says Linda Gold, curator of the exhibit, ‘but her vision as an artist and her use of materials is unique and intensely personal.’ The work on display features several intricate and multicolored oil paintings on wood surfaces. The exhibit’s title, ‘night goblins,’ reflects the subject matter of her paintings, in which mythological, dark, and dream-like creatures populate Buddhist, Hindu, and indigenous Japanese iconography.

Ms. Nagai says she feels very honored and grateful for the opportunity to work with Packer’s students and faculty. ‘This is the absolute best situation [in which] to show my work!’”

— Carol Shen Gallery, Packer Collegiate Institute

“Watching Godzilla at a lunchtime film series, students viewed the 1954 cult sci-fi movie as a familiar fantasy image of Japan - until discovering the country’s real history, culture and art via the year-long inter-curricular cultural immersion at all grade levels at the Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn Heights.

Celebrating the giant lizard’s 50th year last October, the lunchtime group decorated a birthday cake with the monster’s gruesome likeness, the spring issue of The Packer Magazine reports.

With ‘Night Goblins,’ an array of paintings by Megumi Nagai, fantasy about Japan continues at the school. Nagai is the artist in residence with two sons at Packer. A daughter graduated in 1997. The exhibit ‘feature(s) several intricate and multicolored oil paintings on wood surfaces’ and ‘reflects the subject matter of her paintings, in which mythological, dark and dream-like creatures populate Buddhist, Hindu and indigenous Japanese iconography,’ the magazine says.

‘The center of my work is fantasy,’ Ms. Nagai said of her display in the Carol Shen Gallery at Packer. As artist in residence, she will be sharing the traditional arts of kimino, origami and calligraphy with students at all grade levels. Her residency is sponsored by the Mary Marsh Memorial Fund.

Since its inaugural exhibit last spring (featuring Picasso prints loaned from the Neumann Family Collection), the Carol Shen Gallery has become one of Packer’s most dynamic new spaces. Its mission is to ‘enrich and extend the artistic experience of the Packer community … provide thoughtful and challenging visual arts experiences … and to reach beyond the physical dimensions of the Gallery space.’

‘This exhibit is the centerpiece and the touchstone of a year-long, multi-cultural look at Japan,’ observed visual art teacher Ken Rush, who manages the gallery. Alumnus Stella Gold is serving as docent for the show.

Four Upper School students, Kate Andersen, Hideyoshi Coryne, Gaby Santiago-Vancak and Stephanie Tominaga are serving as liaisons with Linda Gold, show curator. They are inviting language students from neighboring Saint Ann’s and Brooklyn Friends to view the Nagai works.

Several additional class events in connection with Packer’s ‘immersion in the culture of Japan’ are described by the magazine’s editor, David Ready. Among these:

Sixth graders with their teacher, Dinah Gravel, acquainted themselves with Kabuki-style theatre in an adaptation of the fairytale, ‘Little Red Kimono.’

The Japanese style of movie animation, anime, was taught by the young curators to the 5th and 6th grades lunchtime culture club.

Librarian Christine Rush instructed Lower Schoolers about the work of Yoshi Uchida with the lecture series ‘The Invisible Thread: Folktales of Japan and One Storyteller’s Journey.’

The Middle School’s spring play was ‘Urashima Taro,’ which was read by Mrs. Rush to another group. Students related the story’s mysterious box to Pandora’s Box, while a character’s long sleep recalled Rip Van Winkle.

Eric Weisberg is inserting ‘Atsumori’ between the 9th grade’s reading of ‘Antigone’ and ‘Macbeth.’ This work introduces Noh, an ancient Japanese theatre style, he said.

Megan Corse is including an episode of ‘The Tale of the Heike’ in the Hero’s Journey class. ‘We will compare and contrast the depiction of the warrior and the warrior’s code of behavior in those tales with examples from Western epics such as Beowulf and the (King) Arthur legends,’ she explained.

For her bio-ethics class, Judy Kemlitz is adding a unit on Hiroshima and the ethics of weaponry, thus discussing the impact of their history on the art and culture of Japan.

Packer Parent Association’s funding let the 6th grade drama classes learn about the Japanese style of movement from Sean Murphy, a choreographer and teacher. With his direction they performed several short plays in the Kyogen (comedy) and Kabuki (a type of popular Japanese drama evolved from the older Noh theater) styles of Nipponese theatre.

Adnan Rubai is using the folded paper art of origami to Upper School math classes about polyhedrons. This ‘gives students a more tactile experience of a theoretical relationship between the way we construct and areas and volumes,’ the magazine reports.

Ms. Nagai encourages the students to visit the gallery as ‘it creates an atmosphere of learning that is strongly connected to Japanese culture.’”

— Don Evans, The Brooklyn Heights Press