About

Alan Nakagawa, Sound & Inter-Disciplinary Artist

CONTACT: alannakagawa @ pm . me

WEBSITE: www.alannakagawa.com

Instagram: nakagawa2015

Based in Los Angeles CA USA

Alan Nakagawa is an interdisciplinary artist with archiving tendencies, primarily working with sound, often incorporating various media and working with communities and their histories. He has created a series of Invisible Architecture experiences that are mash ups of the recorded acoustics of historical sites, giving new context to historic places through a contemporary lens of sound.

Nakagawa is currently one of the commissioned artists for the 2026 Counterpublic in St. Louis MO. He will be focusing on creating a database about the underground dance bar UPSTAIRS LOUNGE (1994 to 2018) with the help of the Upstairs DJ, Tran Family, staff and supporters. Working with the STL County Library, WashU Library and STL Central Library, his interdisciplinary menu will include building a database of oral histories, photos and videos. A pop up oral history station including a dance music sound element and a vinyl mural will be installed at the STL International Institute and travel to several cultural events during Counterpublic. Lastly, Nakagawa will release a dance music LP inspired by the many interviews he’s conducted, Soundbytes from these interviews will also be included on the LP.

His first book, “A.I.R.Head: Anatomy of an Artist in Residence” was published in January 2023 by Writ-Large Press. It maps his artistic trajectory that led to his nine Artist-in-residencies in six years.

Nakagawa is currently working on a sound portrait of Japanese- American Artist Isamu Noguchi which will consist of field recordings of sites along the Pacific Rim integral to Noguchi’s history including the Newborn Section of the Los Angeles General Hospital where the seminal Modernist was born in the begining of the 1900’s.

Nakagawa has been working on a series of semi-autobiographic sound-architecture/tactile sound experiences, utilizing multi-point audio field recordings of historic interiors; Peace Resonance; Hiroshima/Wendover combines recordings of the interiors of the Hiroshima Atomic Dome (Hiroshima, Japan) and Wendover Hangar (Utah); Conical Sound; Antoni Gaudi and Simon Rodia combines recordings of the interiors of Watts Towers (Los Angeles) and the Sagrada Familia (Barcelona, Spain). 

He was the first artist in resident for the Los Angeles Department of Transportation and the Los Angeles County Library. Nakagawa was invited by the Smithsonian Museum of American History to research the development of the hearing aid in the US. He currently resides in Los Angeles’ Koreatown and continues to exhibit and develop his creative practice.

Nakagawa is a recipient of two Art Matters grants, City of Los Angeles Artist Fellowship, California Community Foundation Mid-Career Artist Fellowship and a Monbusho Scholar. He co-founded arts collective non-profit Collage Ensemble Inc. (1984-2011), curated experimental music weekly Ear Meal Webcast (2010-2017), produced public practice artist interviews podcast VISITINGS Radio Show (2017-2020) and administers the website Asian American Futurism (2022-Present).