Rakuko Naito Japanese-American, b. 1937

For the past three decades, Rakuko Naito has dedicated her artistic work to research into the malleability and strength of kozo washi, a traditional Japanese paper. Naito has experimented with many different methods and materials, all with the same dedication to organization and inventiveness.

During the early 60s, after moving from Tokyo to New York, she made optical art and experimented with acrylic paint, spray paint and masking tape. Eventually she found her style in the delicate, monochromatic paper assemblages that she still makes. With an innate preference for order and structure, Naito joins a circle of artists such as Mel Bochner, Eve Hesse and Sol LeWitt. Naito: "I feel that natural forms and structures have a reality that cannot be competed by trying to paint or draw by hand. I try to experiment and manipulate materials to create my own world.” As a result, Naito has found a niche that offers room for her ideas that lie in the middle of our notion of 'drawing' and 'sculptures'.

Naito, born in Tokyo, Japan, studied at the Tokyo National University of Art. After graduating, she moved to New York in 1958, where she has been living and working ever since. Naito's first solo exhibition was in 1965 at the World House Gallery in New York. Naito's work is represented in numerous galleries and public collections in the United States, Europe and Japan, including the Kemper Art Collection (Chicago), Miami-Dade Community College (Miami), The Larry Aldrich Museum (Ridge Eld, CT), the Roland Gibson Art Foundation (SUNY Potsdam) and the Davis Museum and Cultural Center at Wellesley College, Massachusetts. She was an artist in residence at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation in 2003. In 2016, the Karuizawa New Art Museum (Karuizawa, Japan) dedicated a solo exhibition to her work.