Rei Naito

Rei Naito
Born1961
Hiroshima, Japan
NationalityJapanese
Teshima Museum, Ryue Nishizawa and Rei Naito (2010)

Rei Naito (内藤 礼, Naito Rei, born 1961) is a Japanese artist. Naito's work intersects with minimalism, conceptual art, and environmental art, exploring the ways in which human existence is shaped, felt, and made evident amidst its natural surroundings. Using organic and found materials and creating immersive environments that interact with sound, light, and atmosphere, Naito's practice takes a strong interest in the intimate, ambient, and often transient encounters that arise between individuals and artworks.

Naito represented Japan at the 47th Venice Biennale (1997) and exhibited her installation work One Place on Earth (Chijōni hitsotsu no basho o) in the Japan Pavilion, filling the whole of the interior with the immersive piece.[1][2] Naito is also known for her collaboration with architect Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA on the Teshima Art Museum, where her work Matrix, the single artwork on display, utilizes organic forms to accentuate the porosity between phases of the natural world.[3]

In recent years, Naito has also created smaller-scale sculptural works that derive from human forms, alongside her extant abstraction-based installation practice.[4]: 167 [5] Matrix (2010), along with Being Given (2001), are her two permanent installation works, both located within the Seto Island Sea. Smaller scale sculptural works reimagine mundane objects by collaborating and altering exhibition spaces and ambient environments. These works include pillow for the dead (1998) exhibited in the Tokyo National Museum, as well as The joys were greater (2015) shown in Gallery Koyanagi.[6] Her work has been widely exhibited and held in collections at numerous institutions across the globe including the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, the New Museum, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura & Hayama, the National Gallery Singapore, and the Museum für Moderne Kunst.[7]

  1. ^ "Naito Rei (2009)". ART iT. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
  2. ^ "47th La Biennale di Venezia International Art Exhibition". The Japan Pavilion Official Website - La Biennale di Venezia. Retrieved 2023-10-01.
  3. ^ "Teshima Art Museum | Art". Benesse Art Site Naoshima. Retrieved 2023-10-01.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference :7 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "Rei Naito: The Joys were greater @ Gallery Koyanagi - ART iT（アートイット）". 2015-09-25. Retrieved 2024-09-13.
  7. ^ "Rei NAITO". Taka Ishii Gallery / タカ・イシイギャラリー (in Japanese). Retrieved 2023-10-02.