Pace Live

In Conversation

Nigel Cooke & Nobuko Nicole Nakano

Friday, Aug 28, 2026
6 – 7 PM
1F; Azabudai Hills Garden Plaza-A
5-8-1 Toranomon, Minato-ku
Tokyo

EVENT DETAILS

Friday, Aug 28, 2026
6 – 7 PM
1F; Azabudai Hills Garden Plaza-A
5-8-1 Toranomon, Minato-ku
Tokyo

HOW TO ATTEND

Please email pacetokyo@pacegallery.com or (opens in a new window) RSVP here.

CONNECT

(opens in a new window) nakanonobuko.com
(opens in a new window) nigelcooke.net
(opens in a new window) @nigelcookestudio
(opens in a new window) @nobuko.n.nakano
(opens in a new window) @pacegallery

During the opening reception of Night Ruins at our gallery in Tokyo on Friday, August 28, Nigel Cooke will participate in a conversation with neuroscientist Nobuko Nicole Nakano.

Informed by a range of fields from paleontology, neuroscience, classical mythology, and zoology, the linear construction of Cooke’s latest paintings recalls brain circuitry, the human or animal body, and landscape formations simultaneously. The conversation, held within the exhibition space, will address Cooke’s new body of work inspired by the cultural history and nocturnal environments of Venice, Italy—where he recently completed an artist residency at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia—exploring associations with cognition and other activities of the human brain.

Nobuko Nicole Nakano

Nobuko Nicole Nakano, Ph.D., is a neuroscientist, author, and science communicator based in Tokyo. She received her Ph.D. in Medicine from the University of Tokyo in 2008, with a doctoral thesis on the neural mechanisms of perceptual categorization in higher auditory cognition, and conducted postdoctoral research at NeuroSpin, CEA’s high-field MRI research center in France (2008-2010).

Her research focuses on cognitive neuroscience, and she is widely recognized for translating complex brain science into accessible insights through bestselling books, television appearances, and public lectures. She has authored over 20 books, appeared as a regular commentator on major Japanese networks, and delivered lectures on topics ranging from the neuroscience of success and decision-making to the science of human relationships.

She is currently Specially Appointed Professor at Higashi Nippon International University, Visiting Professor at Kyoto University of the Arts, and a Trustee at the Mori Art Museum.

Nigel Cooke

Nigel Cooke is known for evocative works that merge figurative forms with abstract and elemental atmospherics. Since the late 1990s, Cooke has explored and stretched the boundaries of figurative painting, creating a highly diverse and distinctive body of work. More recently, his work has assessed this output, moving into a succinct language with which to investigate his wide range of interests. Informed by a range of fields from palaeontology, neuroscience, classical mythology and zoology, the linear construction of Cooke’s latest paintings recalls brain circuitry, the human or animal body and landscape formations simultaneously.

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