It takes some restraint not to reach out and touch the art when walking through a Kohei Nawa exhibition. From the stuffed animals covered in glass bubbles in his “PixCell” series to the polished, futuristic blades of Throne , and the voluptuous objects coated in bedazzled grains from his “Particle” series, these sculptures have tactile qualities that pique one’s curiosity. Placed under spotlights inside an art gallery, these glittering pieces become hyper-vivid. “Recent Works”, the 43-year-old Japanese artist’s first solo show in Hong Kong, examines the relationship between nature and artificiality. The most visually arresting piece in the exhibition at Pace Gallery in the city’s Central district is one of Nawa’s career-defining concepts: a stuffed deer covered in thousands of clear glass balls of different sizes, which create the impression that the two-metre-tall animal is coated entirely in suds or dew. The light refracted from each ball distorts the creature, giving only an impression of what it looks like beneath its fluid exterior. Deer have mythological and cultural significance in Japan, but Nawa selected them as a medium for practical reasons: they are more abundant than other stuffed animals on auction websites. The piece is from his series called “PixCell”, a portmanteau word combining “cell” and “pixel”; the series also includes a rabbit, a mounted deer head, a penguin and found objects, all covered in glass balls. The artist explains that the pieces are his take on society’s obsession with viewing the world in pixelated form through smartphones, digital cameras and online. “The lensing effects of the different-sized cells enable a number of details of the object to be seen simultaneously. This produces a visual experience involving a unique depth and continuity,” Nawa said in 2016. Now, with his exhibition opening in Hong Kong, he elaborates on the series. “When I started using the internet around 20 years ago, I had to make a new sculpture inspired by this feeling. That’s why I started this series,” he says. “My ‘PixCell’ artworks explore humanity – the human sensibility – and how it is developed by technology. I wanted to express the feeling of the information age. When I started this work, it was the very beginning of the information age. I am continuing the work now.” Born in Kyoto, Japan, in 1975, Nawa studied art in his home city before moving to London to study sculpture at the Royal College of Art in 1998. He launched his “PixCell” series in 2013 and has exhibited at some of the most prestigious galleries in the world over the last two decades. Last year, his 10-metre-tall, three-tonne Throne – a smaller version of which is being shown in Hong Kong – was installed at thecentre of the Louvre’s glass pyramid as part of the French gallery’s programme celebrating the 160th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Japan and France. The artwork evokes Buddhist temple decorations with its yellow gold finish, symmetrical design and intricate form within. However, Throne was designed to be a commentary on the presence of computers, science and artificial intelligence in modern society, with some iterations of the piece featuring a small child seated at the heart of the sculpture, as if lodged within the controls of some large, unwieldy spacecraft or robot. A more recent cultural touchstone for visitors would be the iron throne in the HBO TV series Game of Thrones , forged using hundreds of swords. The contrast between natural forms and digital technology is one of Nawa’s preoccupations. It ignites the artist’s imagination but also worries him. “The progress of computers and artificial intelligence is accelerating, and if they reach the stage where they boast absolute intelligence, society and whole nations are likely to blindly follow them,” he says. “If you think about what instances of power and authority have continued without interruption since ancient times, the pyramids provide one example, but we have to also ask what will continue into the future.”