Naoto Nakagawa was born in Kobe, Japan in 1944 and in 1962 he immigrated to New York City. His paintings have been widely exhibited, starting in 1968 at the legendary avant-garde Judson Gallery in New York, followed by the Obelisk Gallery in Boston, New York galleries Reese Paley, OK Harris, Allan Frumkin, Victoria Munroe, and Feature Inc., and at Fuji Television Gallery and Tamada Projects in Tokyo, Japan. An exhibition at the Cooper Union Humanities Gallery was curated by Dore Ashton. Most recently, a two-part survey of Nakagawa’s work was mounted with his early work at White Box, NY and his new work at Ethan Cohen Fine Arts, NY, with catalogue essays by Alexandra Munroe, Eric Shiner, John Perreault and Jonathan Goodman. He has participated in numerous group shows at, among others, The Guggenheim Museum, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Venice Biennale in 2005. His work is included in many public and private collections in the USA, Europe and Japan, including the New York Museum of Modern Art, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Worcester Museum, and The National Museums of Modern Art in Osaka and in Kyoto. The recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant, Nakagawa has taught and lectured at Columbia University and Parsons School of Design. He has been a guest lecturer at The Museum of Modern Art, NY, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA, The Japan Society, NY and the Portland Museum, OR.
CHRONOLOGY
1944 Born in Kobe, Japan
1961-62 Naniwa Art University, Osaka, Japan
1962 Moves to the United States, settles in New York
1963-65 Brooklyn Museum Art School, Brooklyn, New York
1975-79 Moves to South Newfane, Vermont
1979 Lives and works in New York
GRANTS & AWARDS
1978 National Endowment for the Arts
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2016 1,000 Portraits of Hope, Kondo Hall, Iwate, Japan
2013 1,000 Portraits of Hope, Fukushima Art Center; Ishigamino Oka Museum; Takarazuka City Hall, Japan
2011 Feature Inc, New York, NY
2007 Triple X:Extended, Exploded, Extracted NAOTO NAKAGAWA 1965-1975; White Box, New York, NY
(Curated by Eric Shiner with catalogue essays by Alexandra Munroe, John Perreault, and Eric Shiner)
2007 Ethan Cohen Fine Arts, New York, NY (Catalogue essays by Jake Berthot and Jonathan Goodman)
2004 Holly Snapp Gallery, Venice, Italy (Catalogue essay by Dore Ashton)
2000 The Cooper Union Humanities Gallery, New York, NY (Curated and with an essay by Dore Ashton)
1999 Van Every/Smith Galleries, Davidson College, NC (Catalogue essay by Gail Levin)
1996 Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA (Catalogue essays by Tadao Ogura and John Perreault)
1993 Victoria Munroe Fine Art, New York, NY
1991 Fuji Television Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (Catalogue essay by Dore Ashton)
1982 Kasahara Gallery, Osaka, Japan
Fuji Television Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (Catalogue essays by Rand Castile & Yoshiaki Inui)
1978 Fuji Television Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1972, ‘‘74, ‘78 O.K. Harris Gallery, New York, NY
1971 Obelisk Gallery, Boston, MA
1970 Toward a New Metaphysics: Allen Frumkin Gallery, New York, NY
1968 The Extended Object and Its Image: Judson Memorial Church Gallery, New York, NY
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2019-20 The New York Art Scene: Tottori Art Museum; The Museum of Modern Art, Wakayama; The Tokushima Modern Art Museum; The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, Japan
2018 Colossal World: Japanese Artists and New York 1950-present: White Box, New York, NY
2017 Gardens on Orchard: Lesley Heller Workspace, New York, NY
2015 Allegory of Leaves: Lemmerman Gallery, New Jersey City University Gallery, NJ
2015 The Value of Food: The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, New York, NY
2015 Drawing exhibition: Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
2015 Frieze Art Fair: New York, exhibited by greengrassi gallery, London
2012 Voices from Japan: Despair and Hope from Disaster: 1,000 Portraits of Hope:
The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, New York, NY
2012 After the Water Receded: Images from Japan: Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, New York, NY
2012 Reinventing Landscape: Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, New York, NY
2011 Independent, New York Art Week, exhibited by Feature Inc., New York, NY
2010 NADA Arts Fair, exhibited by Feature Inc. Gallery
2006 Regarding Nature: Feature Inc, New York, NY
2009-11 The World of Trick Art / Trick Art no Sekai: Toyohashi City Museum; Hokkaido-Kushiro Museum; Mie Prefecture Museum; Fukuyama Museum; Sonpo; Togo Seiji Museum; Nagano Prefecture Shinano Museum; Miyazaki Prefecture Museum; Yato City Museum, Japan
2009 Ethan Cohen Fine Arts, New York, NY
2009 Fujii Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2008 CIGE Art Fair, Beijing, China
2008 Scope Art Fair, exhibited by Ethan Cohen Fine Art, New York, NY
2007 Miami Basel Art Fair, exhibited by Ethan Cohen Arthaus, New York, NY
2007 ACAF: Asian Contemporary Art Fair, New York, NY
2007 The World of Trick Art: Takasaki City Museum; Kita Kyushu City Museum, Japan
2006 Three Exhibitions Regarding Nature: Feature Inc, New York, NY
2005 Istanbul Biennale, Two Continents and Beyond: Waterways. An official independent project of the 9th Istanbul Biennale, curated by Renee Vara and Asli Sumer
2005 Venice Biennale, Poles Apart, Poles Together, a project of the International Artists’ Museum & White Box
2005 Venice Biennale, Waterways, a socially conscious art installation produced by Vara Global Fine Arts, NY
2003 Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA
2003 Below the Canal After 9/11: Asian American Arts Centre, New York, NY
2001 Selected Work from the Permanent Collection: Oita City Museum, Japan
2000 Conceptual Ink: Ethan Cohen Fine Art, New York, NY
1999 35th Anniversary Exhibition: Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA
1998 Works on Paper: Tamada Projects, Tokyo, Japan
1996 Still Life: Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA
1994-5 Scream Against the Sky: Japanese Art Since 1945 Guggenheim Museum Soho, New York, NY; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art & Center for the Arts at Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco, CA; Yokohama Museum, Yokohama, Japan. Exhibition book by Alexandra Munroe (New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams, 1994)
1993 Works on Paper: Lyric with an Edge: Victoria Munroe Fine Art, New York, NY
Celestial: Lobby Exhibition, Champion International Co., Stamford, CT
1992 Drawings: Victoria Munroe Fine Art, New York, NY
In the Spirit of Landscape: Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA
1990 The Silent Dialogue: Still Life in the West and Japan: Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art, Japan
1989 Eighty Masterpieces from the Fukuoka Museum: Fukuoka Art Museum, Japan
Contemporary Japanese Art in America: Japan Society Gallery, New York, NY (Catalogue essays by Alexandra Munroe; Toshio Hara; Patterson Sims)
1986 Eminent Immigrants: New House Gallery, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, NY
1982 Contemporary American Realism since 1960: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA; The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA; The Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA; Museo Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal; Salas de Esposiciones de Bellas Artes, Madrid, Spain; Kunsthalle Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nurenberg, Germany
1981 Real, Really Real, Super Real: Directions in Contemporary American Realism: San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX; The Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolos, IN; The Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ; The Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA
1980 Contemporary Asian Art Show: Fukuoka Art Museum, Japan
1979 The Dragon and the Chrysanthemum: Summit Art Center, Summit, NJ
1977 The Chosen Object: European and American Still Life: Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE
1976 The Presence and Absence in Realism: Brainard Hall Art Gallery, State University College at Potsdam, NY; Wichita State University, Wichita, KS; Midyear Show, Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH
1973 Japanese Artists in the Americas: Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, The Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.
1969 West Side Artists: Goddard Riverside Auditorium, New York, NY
Young Artists from Around the World: Union Carbide Building, New York, NY
1968 Beyond Literalism: Moore College of Art, Philadelphia, PA
1968 Art Lending Gallery: Museum of Modern Art, New York
SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
9/11 Memorial and Museum, New York, NY
Lester Avnet Foundation, New York, NY
The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
Bell Telephone Company, Chicago, IL
Frederick R. Weisman Collection, Los Angeles, CA
Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
Fukuyama Museum, Hiroshima, Japan
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
Morgan Stanley Company, Ltd.
Meguro Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Osaka City Museum, Osaka, Japan
Oita City Museum, Kyushu, Japan
Takamatsu Museum, Shikoku, Japan
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan
The National Museum of Modern Art, Osaka, Japan
The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
The Spencer Foundation
Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA
TEACHING POSITIONS & LECTURES
2018, 2019 School of Visual Arts, Guest lecturer, New York, NY
2007 Portland Art Museum, Guest lecturer, Portland, OR
2007 Japan Society, Guest lecturer, New York, NY
2006 Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA
2003, 2004 Castle Hill, Truro Center for the Arts, Artist in Residence, Truro, MA
1996-1999 Columbia University, School of Visual Arts, Adjunct Professor, New York, NY
1996-2000 Parsons School of Design, Fine Arts, Adjunct Professor, New York, NY
1988 The Museum of Modern Art, NY, Kusama in New York: The 1960s, Panel discussion, New York, NY
1995 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Scream Against the Sky: Japanese Art Since 1945, Panel discussion, SF, CA
1995 Asia Society, Artist Talk, New York, NY
1994 Sarah Lawrence College, Guest lecturer, Bronxville, NY
1993 Texas A&M University, Guest lecturer, Corpus Christi, TX
1988 Contemporary Japanese Art in America: Japan Society Gallery, Panel discussion, New York, NY
1985 Pratt Art Institute Seminar, Brooklyn, NY
1976-1978 Windham College, Art Professor, Putney, VT
1977-1979 Windham College Summer Landscape Painting Course, Maine
MEDIA INTERVIEWS
Fuji Television, Japan “Television Museum: Nakagawa Naoto: The World of a Realist Painter” Interview by Namiko Matsumura, Oct. 24, 1982
Fuji Television, Japan Interview, April 1991
National Public Radio "Heat" Interview by John Hockenberry, March 5, 1990
Manhattan Cable Television "Art at Issue: Midnight Muse" Interview by Gail Levin, Dec. 6, 1985
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Aiko, Kenji: New York's Young Japanese Artist: Naoto Nakagawa. Bijutsu Techno, June, 1968: pp. 162-165
Anonymous: "Naoto Nakagawa," Bijutsu Techno, June, 1991
"Realist Who Knows Abstraction: Naoto Nakagawa," Bijutsu Techno, interview by the editorial staff, January, 1983
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"The Silent Dialogue: Still Life in the West and Japan," Catalogue, Shizuoka Prefectural Museum, Japan, 1990
Ashton, Dore:"Beyond Literalism, But Not Beyond the Pale." Arts Magazine, November, 1968
"Naoto Nakagawa." Catalogue essay, Fuji TV Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 1991
Battcock, Gregory, (Ed.) "Super Realism: A Critical Anthology" (New York, NY: E.P. Dutton, Inc., 1975)
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Brenson, Michael:"Three Japanese Artists in Search of a World Language." The New York Times, May 24, 1987
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Castile, Rand:"Absorbing the Shock of the West," ARTnews, September 1981
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