Maya Frodeman Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition with artist Rakuko Naito, on view at the gallery's downtown location from June 11th through July 26th, 2026. An artist reception will be held Thursday, June 11th from 5 to 8pm. Naito will be in attendance. All are welcome to attend.
For nearly seven decades, New York City has been home to Naito, though the sensibilities that shape her work remain deeply rooted in the material traditions of her native Japan. Born in Tokyo in 1935, Naito arrived in New York in 1958 after graduating from the Tokyo National University of Art, leaving behind the conventions of postwar Japan in pursuit of artistic freedom and experimentation. Though she resists defining her work through national identity, Japanese materials and methods remain foundational to her practice. Her long engagement with kozo washi paper and traditional Japanese techniques has resulted in a body of work that feels both deeply tactile and resolutely contemporary.
Born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1935, Naito studied at the Tokyo National University of Art. After her graduation in 1958, she moved to New York City, where she has lived and worked ever since. Naito’s first solo exhibition was at the World House Gallery in New York in 1965. Featured throughout the United States, Europe and Japan, Naito’s work is represented in numerous galleries and public collections including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (San Francisco), the Voorlinden Museum (Wassenaar, the Netherlands), 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.
