Emiko Nakano
(1925 - 1990)

Emiko Nakano (1925 - 1990)

Born in 1925, Sacramento, CA. and raised in Chico, Ca.

During WWII in 1943, the family was interned at the relocation center in Colorado and later moved to Crystal City Family Internment Camp in Texas where she was able to continue her painting producing oil landscapes of the camp.   The family eventually moved to Richmond, CA.   (As told by Barbara Nakano, a sister, to David Carlson who handled Emiko’s estate for the family.) 

 

Emiko Nakano, A first generation student, studied at the California School of Fine Arts from 1947-51 under Clyfford Still, James Budd Dixon, Edward Corbett, Richard Diebenkorn, Hassel Smith and Elmer Bischoff. Nakano also studied art history at University of California during the summer of 1949 under Laslo Moholoy-Nagy.  In the summer of 1952 she studied at Mills College.

 

Her paintings and prints were exhibited widely during the 1950s, including in important exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1952 and the 1953; III Biennial, Sao Paulo, Brazil.

 

Solo Exhibitions

1955   Richmond Art Center, two person exhibition with Clayton Pinkerton. 

2014–2015: Cross the Bridge: Emiko Nakano – Abstract Landscapes, Monterey Museum of Art, Monterey, California

 

Selected Group Exhibitions

Staempli Gallery, New York; 

San Francisco Art Association Annuals at the San Francisco Museum of Art, 1951, 52, 53, 54 and Open Members Exhibition, 1958; 

San Francisco Woman Artists, 1952, 53; 

Richmond Art Center, 1951, 52, 53; 

California State Fair, 1951, 52, 53; 

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1952; 

San Francisco 6th Art Festival 1952; de Young Museum, 1953; 

III Biennial, Sao Paulo, Brazil; 

Long Beach Museum of Art; 

Second West Coast Biennial 1952, 

Santa Barbara Museum of Art;

Stanford University Museum and Art Gallery 1954. 

 

Literature
Susan Landauer, The San Francisco School of Abstract Expressionism, U. C. Press; 

Jeffrey Wechsler, Asian Traditions, Modern Impressions, Rutgers University; 

San Francisco Art Association (Institute) Catalog of the Art Bank 1958, 1962.

Chang, Gordon H.; Johnson, Mark Dean; Karlstrom, Paul J.; Spain, Sharon (2008). Asian American Art history, 1850 - 1970, Stanford, California: 

Stanford University Press.

Marter, Joan (2016-01-01).  Women of Abstract Expressionism, Yale University Press, p 187