Emiko Nakano

Emiko Nakano (1925–1990) was an American abstract expressionist painter, printmaker, fiber artist, and fashion Illustrator.

Biography Emiko Nakano was born on July 4, 1925, in Sacramento, California; her parents were immigrants from Japan. She was raised in Chico, California. When they were released from the camps, the family moved to Richmond, California. She studied with Clyfford Still, James Budd Dixon, Edward Corbett, Richard Diebenkorn, Hassel Smith, and Elmer Bischoff. In 2016 her biography was included in the exhibition catalogue Women of Abstract Expressionism organized by the Denver Art Museum. In 2023 her work was included in the exhibition Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940-1970 at the Whitechapel Gallery in London.

Career Nakano was a Fiber Artist. She used fibers from Japanese paper, which is a traditional Japanese technique called Shifu. The Inspiration for her technique of using the Japanese paper in the artistry was that in her early start to her career, she would see clothes made out of old account books. In her way, she would use calligraphy paper as her weft. Calligraphy Paper was used by her because when the paper was cut and woven, the calligraphy character looked like fragments of ancient Japanese markings. An Important part of Nakano artist abilities was using Words and language with her artistic work. In turn, because used words and language in artistry, she would add additional words to the layers of calligraphy paper, which caused words to become unreadable even to the people in Japan. Nakano used Japanese materials; she was also known to use natural processes in her work as well. She would put the paper in hot water to allow them to become organic and fluid, until they shrunk. The process that she used was a very non-controllable transformation, she allows her to have textural pieces of her work, it also creates a timeless element to her work and also evokes the passages of history.

Exhibitions A select list of exhibitions, by Nakano:

Solo exhibitions 2014–2015: Cross the Bridge: Emiko Nakano – Abstract Landscapes, Monterey Museum of Art, Monterey, California 1955: São Paulo Art Biennial, São Paulo, Brazil 1955: Emiko Nakano and Clayton Pinkerton, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, California 1955: Bay Region Painting and Sculpture, San Francisco Museum of Art (now known as San Francisco Museum of Modern Art), San Francisco, California