Nao Usami: See Me, Feel Me — A collective story, a shared resilience
WAN EXHIBITION vol.1
February 19 - 28, 2026
This exhibition delves into the complex emotional processes and sensuous bodily navigations that arise from experiences of sexualized harm. By visually foregrounding the stories of those living with experiences in the two critical digital artworks, I stitch my skin to the ground (2023) and Clean Up My Pixels (2025), we invite the viewers to see and feel the emotions, sensations and movements related to the experiences of sexual abuse both physical and digital forms.
Nao Usami is a Tokyo-based artist whose practice spans video, video games, and performance through the use of 3D-CG technologies. The recurring metaphor in her works is “shedding skin.” This was born from her desire to “be reborn in a new body” after being sexually assaulted in public spaces for about ten years. It is also a symbol that expresses her will to break free from binary categorization.
The exhibition also includes a small showcase introducing three emerging Japanese media art practitionerswho have undertaken, or are scheduled to undertake, research residencies in New York:
Ryuta Aoki(Artist, Artistic Director),
Miyuki Tanaka (Curator, Accessibility Researcher, Social Worker),
Tomo Kihara (Media Artist, Game Developer)
Exhibition title: Aia Elbke
INFORMATION
Dates: February 19 - 28, 2026
Hours: 1 PM – 7 PM (Open everyday during the exhibition period)
Venue: All Street Gallery
Address: 119 Hester Street, New York, NY 10002
Admission: Free
Organized by Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan, Japan Arts Council, CG-ARTS
With the support of NEW INC, GEIDAI Platform of Arts and Knowledge for the Future
JAPAN CREATOR SUPPORT FUND
OPENING RECEPTION
The opening reception will take place on February 19 from 6 pm at All Street Gallery. Drinks and light refreshments will be provided. We look forward to seeing you all.
Dates: February 19, 2026
Hours: 6 PM – 8 PM
DESTINATION
Talk
"Invisible Gaze in Public and Cyberspace"
February 20, 2026, 6pm—8pm
A special talk on cyberfeminism with the artist Nao Usami and three guest speakers, inviting the audience to take part in an open dialogue.
We are pleased to welcome Mindy Seu, who will introduce her latest lecture performance and book, “A SEXUAL HISTORY OF THE INTERNET”. After the talk, visitors will have the opportunity to purchase her book. The discussion will be moderated by Salome Asega, an advisor of WAN and Director of NEW INC. Copenhagen-based researcher Aia Elbke will present her research on “Digital abusive gazes and gendered hypervisibility in public and cyberspace.” Tokyo-based Artist Nao Usami will speak about her solo exhibition "See me, Feel me," as well as address the topic of deepfake pornography.
To everyone in New York, we hope to see you there!
Mpderator:
Salome Asega (the Director of NEW INC)
Speakers:
Mindy Seu (Artist, Technologist, the Associate Professor at UCLA)
Aia Elbke (Digital Visual Anthropologist)
Nao Usami (Artist)
Salome Asega
Salome Asega is the Deputy Director of Strategy and Innovation and Director of NEW INC, the New Museum’s cultural incubator for creative practitioners working across art, design, and technology. Asega is also an artist, researcher, and educator working between participatory design and emerging technologies. Prior to joining NEW INC in 2021, Asega was the inaugural New Media Art Research Fellow for Creativity and Free Expression at the Ford Foundation, where she supported artists and organizations in the new media arts ecosystem. Since 2015, Asega has been teaching studio and design methodology courses in the MFA Design and Technology program at Parsons School of Design.
Photo: Alexa Viscius
Mindy Seu
Mindy Seu (b. 1991, California) is an artist and technologist based in Los Angeles and New York City whose practice focuses on technology-driven performance and publication. A SEXUAL HISTORY OF THE INTERNET (2025) follows her first book CYBERFEMINISM INDEX (2023), a pseudo-encyclopedia that gathers three decades of online activism and net art, which was commissioned by Rhizome, premiered at the New Museum, and awarded a Graham Foundation Grant. Mindy is currently teaching as an Associate Professor at University of California, Los Angeles in the Department of Design Media Arts.
Photo: Saffron Liberty
Aia Elbke
Aia Elbke is a Copenhagen-based digital visual anthropologist who researches digital sexualized abuse and dynamics of gendered digital body politics online. She focuses on lived experiences with navigation non-consensual hypersexualization of bodies and the sociocultural and emotional processes that unfold when you lose control of images of your body online.
Nao Usami
Nao Usami creates works spanning video, video games, and performance through the use of 3DCG technologies. Her first solo exhibition, TOKAS-Emerging 2023, was held at Tokyo Arts and Space Hongo in 2023. She has participated in group exhibitions worldwide, including in Portugal, Taipei, and South Korea. Her work I stitch my skin to the ground (2023) received an Honorary Mention in the New Animation Art category at Prix Ars Electronica 2024. MFA, Department of New Media, Graduate School of Film and New Media, Tokyo University of the Arts, 2020.
INFORMATION
Dates: February 20, 2026
Hours: 6 PM – 8 PM
Venue: All Street Gallery
Address: 119 Hester Street, New York, NY 10002
Admission: Free
DESTINATION