Emiko Nakano (1925–1990) was an American

abstract expressionist Abstract expressionism in the United States emerged as a distinct art movement in the aftermath of World War II and gained mainstream acceptance in the 1950s, a shift from the American social realism of the 1930s influenced by the Great Depressi ...

painter, printmaker, fiber artist, and fashion Illustrator.

Biography

Emiko Nakano was born on July 4, 1925, in

Sacramento Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 p ...

, California; her parents were immigrants from Japan. She was raised in Chico,

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. When Nakano was in high school in 1939, the United States entered

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Following the signing of

Executive Order 9066 Executive Order 9066 was a President of the United States, United States presidential executive order signed and issued during World War II by United States president Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942. "This order authorized the fo ...

, her family was placed internment camp for three years because they were of Japanese ancestry; first at the Merced Assembly Center, followed by

Camp Amache Granada War Relocation Center, known to the internees as Camp Amache ( ) and later designated the Amache National Historic Site, was a concentration camp for Japanese Americans in Prowers County, Colorado. Following the Japanese attack on Pear ...

. When they were released from the camps, the family moved to

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

, California. From fall 1947 until the summer of 1951, Nakano attended the

California School of Fine Arts San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...

(now known as San Francisco Art Institute). She studied with

Clyfford Still Clyfford Still (November 30, 1904 – June 23, 1980) was an American Painting, painter, and one of the leading figures in the first generation of Abstract Expressionists, who developed a new, powerful approach to painting in the years immediat ...

James Budd Dixon James Budd Dixon (November 26, 1900 – December 1, 1967) was an American Abstract Expressionist painter and printmaker. He was a member of the "Sausalito Six" group of San Francisco Bay Area painters. Family and education James Budd Dixon was bor ...

, Edward Corbett,

Richard Diebenkorn Richard Diebenkorn (April 22, 1922 – March 30, 1993) was an American painter and printmaker. His early work is associated with abstract expressionism and the Bay Area Figurative Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. In the late 1960s he began ...

Hassel Smith Hassel Smith (24 April 1915 – 2 January 2007) was an American artist and teacher. He is considered to have been one of the USA's foremost West Coast artists, emerging in the decade after World War II as an innovative, potent, witty and often ...

, and

Elmer Bischoff Elmer Nelson Bischoff (July 9, 1916 – March 2, 1991), was an American visual artist, from the San Francisco Bay Area. Bischoff, along with Richard Diebenkorn and David Park (painter), David Park, was part of the post-World War II generation of ...

. In summer 1949, she attended the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

; and in the summer 1952, she attended

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland, California is part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was relocated to Oakland in ...

. In the 1950s, Nakano worked as a freelance fashion illustrator. She died on March 7, 1990, at the age of 64, in Richmond, California. Her work is in the public museum collection at the

Monterey Museum of Art The Monterey Museum of Art (MMA) an art museum located in Monterey, California. It was founded in 1959 as a chapter of the American Federation of Arts. The Monterey Museum of Art collects, preserves, and interprets the art of California from th ...

. In 2016 her biography was included in the exhibition catalogue ''Women of Abstract Expressionism'' organized by the

Denver Art Museum The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is an art museum located in the Civic Center of Denver, Colorado. With an encyclopedic collection of more than 70,000 diverse works from across the centuries and world, the DAM is one of the largest art museums betwe ...

. In 2023 her work was included in the exhibition '' Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940-1970'' at the

Whitechapel Gallery The Whitechapel Gallery is a public art gallery in Whitechapel on the north side of Whitechapel High Street, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The original building, designed by Charles Harrison Townsend, opened in 1901 as one of the fi ...

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

Group exhibitions

* 1952: ''San Francisco Women Artists Annual Exhibition'',

San Francisco Museum of Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum and nonprofit organization located in San Francisco, California. SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art, and has b ...

(now known as San Francisco Museum of Modern Art), San Francisco, California * 1952: ''American Drawings, Watercolors, and Prints'', the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

, New York City, New York *1955: ''

São Paulo Art Biennial The São Paulo Art Biennial ( Portuguese: ''Bienal de São Paulo'') was founded in 1951 and has been held every two years since. It is the second oldest art biennial in the world after the Venice Biennale (in existence since 1895), which serves as ...

'', São Paulo, Brazil * 1955: ''Emiko Nakano and Clayton Pinkerton'',

Richmond Art Center Richmond Art Center is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit arts organization based in Richmond, California, founded in 1936. History In 1936, Richmond-resident Hazel Salmi began teaching classes under the Emergency Education Program (EEP) of the ...

, 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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nakano, Emiko 1925 births 1990 deaths 20th-century American women painters 20th-century American painters San Francisco Art Institute alumni Abstract expressionist artists People from Richmond, California Artists from San Francisco American women printmakers Japanese-American internees American artists of Japanese descent People from Chico, California Textile artists from California