Biography

Naomi Kawanishi Reis has exhibited at @KCUA (Kyoto), Youkobo Art Space (Tokyo), Transmitter (Brooklyn, NY), Mixed Greens (New York, NY), and Brooklyn Academy of Music, among others. In 2018 she received a Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant, and in 2015 was a NYFA Finalist in Painting. Residencies that have supported her work include Yaddo, Wave Hill (Bronx, NY), the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, and the Lower East Side Printshop. A founding member of artist-run gallery Tiger Strikes Asteroid NY (2012-2017), in 2015-2019 she co-organized the collective AN/OTHER NY: a nomadic workspace for Asian art practitioners to gather through workshops and public events. She is also a founding member of the Inner Fields NY sangha and reading group. She holds an MFA from the University of Pennsylvania, and a BA in Transcultural Identity from Hamilton College. Born in Shiga, Japan, Naomi Kawanishi Reis makes 2D works using everyday materials like paper, blades, and brushes to focus on idealized spaces—utopian architecture, conservatory gardens, and still life. Reis also works as a Japanese-English translator; her visual practice provides a way to think directly through the hands via manual labor in a space without words. She currently lives on unceded Lenape land in Brooklyn, NY.

 

Works
  • Naomi Kawanishi Reis, 092322_3:30pm_46º32'01/5'N, 124º01'55.6"W, 2025
    092322_3:30pm_46º32'01/5'N, 124º01'55.6"W, 2025
  • Naomi Kawanishi Reis, 092322_3:30pm_46º32'01/5'N, 124º01'55.6"W, 2024
    092322_3:30pm_46º32'01/5'N, 124º01'55.6"W, 2024
  • Naomi Kawanishi Reis, 092422_10:38am_46.30599ºN, 124.04009ºW (cool), 2024
    092422_10:38am_46.30599ºN, 124.04009ºW (cool), 2024
  • Naomi Kawanishi Reis, 092422_10:38am_46.30599ºN, 124.04009ºW (warm), 2024
    092422_10:38am_46.30599ºN, 124.04009ºW (warm), 2024
  • Naomi Kawanishi Reis, 44.035°N 123.058°W (060416_6:00am), 2024
    44.035°N 123.058°W (060416_6:00am), 2024
  • Naomi Kawanishi Reis, imperial moon (100120), 2024
    imperial moon (100120), 2024
  • Naomi Kawanishi Reis, night window (110516), 2024
    night window (110516), 2024
  • Naomi Kawanishi Reis, strange sky (091022), 2024
    strange sky (091022), 2024
  • Naomi Kawanishi Reis, plant watching (053017), 2023
    plant watching (053017), 2023
  • Naomi Kawanishi Reis, 111119 (90ºW), 2021
    111119 (90ºW), 2021
  • Naomi Kawanishi Reis, 71220 (10:17pm), 2021
    71220 (10:17pm), 2021
  • Naomi Kawanishi Reis, Scene from a Cultivated Jungle (view II), 2015
    Scene from a Cultivated Jungle (view II), 2015
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