Naho Ito

Profile

Naho Ito creates organic contemporary Japanese artwork that capture an immensely unique imaginary.
Using her fingers, Ito creates works that simultaneously pay homage to traditional techniques and colour and convey the artist’s deep and often unexpected emotions. Her tactile process means she connects directly with her creative medium, thus ensuring that we, as the viewers, can appreciate each pigment’s depth and character.

Ito specialises in Nihonga— a traditional Japanese technique that has been used for centuries. Nihonga makes use of various organic materials to create natural pigments — the most common of which is “iwa-enogu (lit. “rock-paint”). Iwa-enogu are made by drawing colour from soil, minerals, shells of oysters and clams, and other elements with earthy and grainy textures.

Nihonga is an inherently delicate technique. Ito mixes each element with resin or glue using her fingers before carefully pasting it onto handmade hemp or Japanese mulberry paper to create her work. Though hand-made, the paper is resistant to the water, glue and resin involved in the painting process. Instead, it becomes an active participant in the creation of Ito’s work — almost as if the mineral pigments and paper are in conversation with one another, resulting in new, unexpected transformations created by the paper and pigment together. Ito uses her creative process to delve deeper into what she calls the “language of hope” belonging to her pigment, paper and tools.

Artist Statement

When I paint, I reflect on a shivering that humans long, long ago felt from their subconscious. That shiver forced them to utter words that did not yet have meaning: transforming them first into a person and then an individual. I want to reconnect with that shivering sensation from where we are now.
I start painting a picture by drawing lines and colouring with water. I don’t set out to draw a grand story, a firm image, or introduce any personal claims or messages. I feel there is nothing definitive in this world: just as there is not just one path to anywhere, everything intertwines in this world full of contradictions and is constantly in motion.

I try to depict the tension of a moment when various incompatible things, acceptable things, familiar things, unfamiliar things, and things that appear similar but are completely different acknowledge one other while retaining their individuality — without ever abandoning those contradictions.

I think these contradictions retain a certain nobility similar to that first shivering. And in that gap, light can be glimpsed. That is the kind of painting I want to create.

Naho Ito

それは膨張をもたらして
It is overwhelming me

2019

H32.0 × W82.0

mineral pigments, hemp paper

Naho Ito

花残れり
flower remaining in bloom

2022

H41.0 × W31.8

mineral pigments, hemp paper

Naho Ito

断片
Fragment 

2019

H24.2 × W33.3

mineral pigments, hemp paper

Naho Ito

Brush Talk

2019

H24.2× W33.3

mineral pigments, hemp paper

Naho Ito

語り語りかけられる言葉たち
Words Speak, and Words Are Spoken

2019

H130.4 × W194.0

mineral pigments, hemp paper

Naho Ito

未明
Early Dawn

2022

H24.2 × W33.3

mineral pigments, hemp paper

Naho Ito


moment

2019

H22.0 × W33.3

mineral pigments, hemp paper

Naho Ito

余花
yokwa

2023

H45.5 x W45.5

mixed media, canvas

Naho Ito

Stella I

2021

H15.8 × W22.7

mineral pigments, hemp paper

EDUCATION / EXPERIENCE

2002 B.F.A in Japanese Painting, Tama Art University (Tokyo)

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2019 “Word” (Gallery G-77, Kyoto)
2018 “A Walk with Kierkegaard II” (Art Gallery Kitano, Kyoto)
2013 “A Walk with Kierkegaard” (Art Gallery Kitano, Kyoto)
2009 “Forest of Paintings” (Gallery Maronie, Kyoto)
2007 “Moment” paint fresco (Otowa Restaurant, Tochigi)

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2023
Art on Paper (Gallery G-77)

2019
Affordable Art Fair Brussels (Gallery G-77)
Art Market San-Francisco (Gallery Repost)

2018
SCOPE Art Show NY (Gallery G-77)
SCOPE Art Show Basel (Gallery G-77)
Affordable Art Fair Battersea (Gallery G-77)
“JIYUnoHAKO” (Gallery EGAKU, Kyoto)

2017
1st Anniversay Exhibition of Gallery EGAKU (Gallery EGAKU, Kyoto)

2016
“Coincidence” Myokoji-Temple (Kyoto)
“ART COMPRESSION” (Gallery hæpi, Kyoto)

2003
Tow People Exhibition (Gallery Nakazawa, Tokyo)

2001
“being” (Gallery Y&Y, Tokyo)

LECTURE

Otowa Restaurant waiting space (Tochigi prefecture)