Hiroshi Nagai

Hiroshi Nagai is a legendary Japanese graphic designer and illustrator born on December 22, 1947, in Tokushima Prefecture, Japan, best known for defining the sun-drenched, aspirational visual identity of the 1980s City Pop music genre. Inspired by his father, an amateur landscape painter, Nagai pursued art and developed a signature style after traveling through the United States and Guam in the mid-1970s. These travels exposed him to American scenery, mid-century design, and Americana, which he blended with influences from English pop artist David Hockney and classic American films. His distinct, nostalgia-inducing paintings feature radiant blue skies, crystal-clear swimming pools, palm trees, and calm coastal architecture evoking an "eternal summer." By purposefully keeping his landscapes empty of human figures, he maintains a universal, quiet, and open atmosphere. Nagai achieves his signature smooth, luminous gradients using an analog mix of acrylic paint on canvas paired with meticulous airbrushing. His most iconic work includes the album cover for Eiichi Ohtaki's 1981 masterpiece A Long Vacation, which won CBS/Sony's Gold Disc Award. In recent years, Nagai's distinct aesthetic has experienced a massive global resurgence, heavily influencing the internet-born Vaporwave movement and earning him major international exhibitions.