Kikuo saito biography of christopher

  • Born in Japan, Saito spent his earliest years as an artist in Tokyo establishing his relationship with painting, seeking to have his works publicly exhibited.
  • Saito, an immigrant to New York from Tokyo, was always fascinated by the pictorial capacities of language, treating words as images, and linguistic characters.
  • Christopher Y. Lew – brings forth one of the scene's most prolific and endearing painters, and a pioneer in his own right.

    • •

    Kikuo Saito

    Color Codes
    Curated by Christopher Y. Lew
    March 8—April 20, 2024

    Opening reception: Friday, March 8, 6-8pm


    James Fuentes is thrilled to announce the inaugural exhibition at the gallery’s new Tribeca location, Kikuo Saito, Color Codes, curated by Christopher Y. Lew. 

    Color Codes will be the most extensive presentation to date of the late Japanese-American artist’s so-called "Monochromatic" works, large-scale paintings made between 1990 and 1993 at Saito's studio in Tribeca, located only six blocks from the gallery’s new home at 52 White Street. 

    Returning to the artist’s paintings of the early 1990s, which lie at the heart of his five-decade career, this exhibition reinforces James Fuentes' dedication to the continuously evolving Downtown scene. Rooted on the Lower East Side for its first two decades, James Fuentes is committed to surveying, constructively revising, and creatively shaping the history of New York art in situ—showing the work of Downtown artist

    •

    Kikuo Saito: Color Codes at James Fuentes Gallery

    By Jonathan Goodman, April 20, 2024

    Kikuo Saito(1939-2016) left Tokyo for New York in 1966, at the age of 26. He established han själv downtown, only six blocks away from the present home of the Fuentes gallery on White Street, Tribeca, Manhattan, where his work fryst vatten now on exhibit. This wonderful show of eight paintings, which the artist dubbed “Monochromatic,” come close to fitting that description: large-scale canvases of single-color expanses that cover the entire face of the composition. “Color Codes,” the name of the show curated bygd Christopher Y. Lew, and the second presentation bygd the galleri is a fine anthology of a very begåvad artist.

    Despite Saito’s term “Monochromatic” for his art, the works in this show are more complex than the adjective implies. The paintings contain scribbles, words in English that are difficult to read, and other small embellishments that activate the art’s broad planes of single color. This group

  • kikuo saito biography of christopher

    • •

    Color plays

    James Fuentes is pleased to present Color plays, introducing works by Japanese-American painter and performer Kikuo Saito (1939-2016) spanning the first decade of the 2000s. The exhibition marks the first major solo presentation of Saito’s work in Los Angeles, following the gallery’s exhibitions in New York, including Color codes curated by Christopher Y. Lew earlier this year.

    The metaphor of dual existence can be applied along almost any interval of Saito’s oeuvre. Born in Japan, Saito spent his earliest years as an artist in Tokyo establishing his relationship with painting, seeking to have his works publicly exhibited, and earning money working on stage sets for modern dance and as a lighting engineer at a popular cabaret in Shinjuku. In 1966, at the age of 26, he would destroy all of his paintings made up to this point and move to New York City. There, Saito maintained the bridge between painting in the solitude of his studio and collaborating on stage setting