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Emiko Nakano (1925–1990) was an American abstract expressionist painter, printmaker, fiber artist, and fashion Illustrator.
Biography
Emiko Nakano was born on July 4, 1925, in Sacramento, California; her parents were immigrants from Japan. She was raised in Chico, California. When Nakano was in high school in 1939, the United States entered World War II. Following the signing of Executive Order 9066, 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. When they were released from the camps, the family moved to Richmond, California.
From fall 1947 until the summer of 1951, Nakano attended the California School of Fine Arts (now known as San Francisco Art Institute). She studied with Clyfford Still, James Budd Dixon, Edward Corbett, Richard Diebenkorn, Hassel Smith, and Elmer Bischoff. In summer 1949, she attended the University of California, Berkeley; and in the summer 1952, she attended Mills College.
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. In 2016 her biography was included in the exhibition catalogue Women of Abstract Expressionism organized by the Denver Art Museum. In 2023 her work was included in the exhibition Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940-1970 at the Whitechapel Gallery in London.
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 (now known as San Francisco Museum of Modern Art), San Francisco, California
- 1952: American Drawings, Watercolors, and Prints, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, New York
- 1955: São Paulo Art Biennial, São Paulo, Brazil
- 1955: Emiko Nakano and Clayton Pinkerton, Richmond Art Center, 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