Getty and Japan Pavilion Debut New Performance Project with Ei Arakawa‑Nash and Fac Xtra Retreat (FXR)

Getty announced today a major new performance engagement with Fac Xtra Retreat (FXR), a collective of seven Los Angeles–based Asian American artists and educators. Included in the group is Ei Arakawa-Nash, who will represent Japan at the Japan Pavilion of the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia in 2026.

Taking place at the Getty Center from March 14 to 15, 2026, FXR’s project “24 HOUR CARE” begins with a retreat on Saturday, March 14, held with members of the Asian American Pacific Islander Artist Network (AAPIAN). Informed by the shared stories and exchanges of this gathering, FXR will carry this experience into an “all-nighter” working session, incorporating emerging themes and references into the evolving project.

The collective returns to Getty on Sunday, March 15 with a day of public engagements featuring performance and public participation unfolding across spaces throughout the Getty Center campus—the visible outcome of the around-the-clock process. Blending improvised dialogue, sculptural elements, and site-responsive actions, the artists will interweave visual and spatial motifs drawn from both the Getty Center’s architecture and the Japan Pavilion in Venice. The schedule for March 15 will be published on the website closer to the date.

FXR’s members — Ei Arakawa-Nash, Patty Chang, Pearl C. Hsiung, Amanda Ross-Ho, Anna Sew Hoy, Shirley Tse, and Amy Yao—are practicing artists and professors. Their collaborative process draws from lived experiences as artists, educators, parents, caretakers, and community members across Southern California. The project reflects on the 24-hour demands of caretaking while proposing reciprocal modes of support among artists and their wider communities. The FXR performance at Getty will continue at the Japan Pavilion, where two performances will take place on May 8 and May 10, 2026, during the opening week of the Venice Biennale. Co-produced by the Getty Museum and the Japan Foundation, this transpacific collaboration underscores Getty’s commitment to supporting artists whose practices shape art-historical narratives from the vantage point of Southern California communities.

“Ei Arakawa-Nash and FXR bring together irreverence, generosity, and collective experimentation in ways that feel both intimate and expansive,” said Sarah Cooper, performance programs specialist at the J. Paul Getty Museum. “These performances contribute to the wider story of Asian diasporas in Greater Los Angeles—a key aspect of Ei’s artistic perspective—while embodying his distinctive alchemy of humor and truth that unsettles fixed roles, challenges social and institutional norms and honors the multiplicities we all hold.”

FXR’s engagement at Getty is presented as part of the Museum’s ongoing “Ever Present” performance series, which continues its commitment to ambitious, process-based live works that expand how performance can inhabit and reinterpret museum space. Also at the Getty Center on March 31st as part of “Ever Present” will be Mary Halvorson, a composer, guitarist, and one of the most distinctive and boundary-pushing musicians in contemporary jazz. Halvorson brings her new quartet project to the Getty for an evening of fiercely imaginative ensemble music in Ever Present: Mary Halvorson—CANIS MAJOR.

About Ei Arakawa-Nash

Born in Fukushima, Japan, Ei Arakawa-Nash is a Japanese American performance artist based in Los Angeles. Working continuously with others, he destabilizes the singular artistic “I,” creating group performances that emphasize the precarity of art objects and artist subjectivities. He is a professor in the Graduate Art program at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena. His recent exhibitions and performances include presentations at Haus der Kunst, Munich; National Art Center, Tokyo; CHAT – Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile, Hong Kong; Tokyo Photographic Art Museum; Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg; Museion Bozen; Artists Space, New York; Tate Modern, London; and the Honolulu Biennial.