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Rakuko Naito, born in Tokyo, studied at the Tokyo National University of Art. After her graduation, in 1958, she moved to New York, where she has lived and worked ever since. Over a half-century, she has been associated with such important movements in contemporary art as Op Art and Minimalism.

Rakuko Naito’s recent works are made of paper, and they are about the qualities of paper, yet they defy traditional western classifications: they are neither works on paper, nor are they precisely works sculpted with paper. The artist’s interests are shape and texture, geometry and nature, art and reality. Rather than draw a line on paper, she creates a line with an independent existence by folding the paper. Creations of paper are set within box-like frames, preserved like scientific specimens, but telling no story and void of political or social content. To appreciate Naito’s work fully it helps to understand both Western Minimalism and the traditional arts of Japan. The artist’s concern is with art and visual stimulation in its purest form.

Chronology and selected exhibition history: