KinoSaito’s spacious galleries are designed to highlight ideas at the core of the center’s mission—experimental practices of artists working today seen in relation to Kikuo Saito’s paintings, works on paper and theater design from throughout his over fifty-year career. In the first gallery, visitors encounter a selection of Saito’s work that changes quarterly, each iteration highlighting a theme, motif, painting style or area of focus worthy of the artist’s extended study. The second gallery is a rotating series of exhibitions featuring the work of contemporary artists across disciplines, media, and artistic practices.
Kikuo Saito: The Wrong Side of the Brush
Curated by Kikuo Saito Studio
8 Mar. – 18 May 2025
Kikuo Saito, untitled III, 1978, Acrylic on canvas, 72 1/4 x 71 in
The Wrong Side of the Brush brings together six paintings, five of them made between 1977 and 1978, and a single one — the blue one, Blue Ladder — made in 1987. The medium is acrylic on canvas kept raw, without gesso, a technique favored by Saito that puts his work into direct conversation with that of Helen Frankenthaler, who also often preferred to paint onto — to paint atop — an unprepared ground. These raw canvas patches or pools enframed by playful color became a hallmark of Saito’s acrylic style of the period, but this intimate grouping of canvases is unified by a more subtle procedure, namely the use of the brush’s handle, “the wrong side of the brush,” to drag lines — squiggly lines, slashing lines — through the background color. The result suggests the fundamentally abstract nature of craquelure, a network of rips, tears, and seams abraded and coming loose — lines along which light might enter the painting and illuminate it from within.
–Joshua Cohen
GALLERY 2
Reuven Israel: U.F.O. (Untitled Folding Object) 1329
Curated by Kathy Battista and Sarah Strauss
8 Mar. – 18 May 2025
U.F.O. (Untitled Folding Object) 1329 is a solo presentation that consists of a site-specific installation and a series of related drawings by the Brooklyn-based artist Reuven Israel. This exhibition continues the artist’s abiding interest in architecture and sacred spaces’ overlapping and conflicting histories.
U.F.O. (Untitled Folding Object) 1329, is inspired by early modernist art movements, as well as Navajo and Hopi weaving traditions, Op Art, science fiction, video games, and sacred geometry. While U.F.O. (Untitled Folding Object) 1329 sprawls the length of the space, with visitors able to walk around it, a series of preliminary drawings adorn the gallery walls, inviting viewers in.
–Kathy Battista
Artis supports contemporary artists from Israel whose work addresses aesthetic, social, and political questions that inspire reflection and debate. Artis is a nonprofit organization based in New York.
THEATER GALLERY
Bruce Odland & Soli Pierce: Sound Forest / Between Worlds
8 Mar. – 18 May 2025
Sound Forest / Between Worlds is the latest installation in an ongoing collaboration between sound artist Bruce Odland and artist Soli Pierce in which expansive sound environments are built within immersive installations consisting of natural materials including wood, moss, and bark. This will be one of the most ambitious forms this project has taken filling the entirety of our 1500 square foot Theater Gallery.
This exhibition will be supplemented by a wide variety of public programming including a film program, concert, workshops and more.
This project is made possible with funds from Arts Alive, a regrant program of ArtsWestchester with support from the Office of the Governer, the New York State Legislature, and the New York State Council on the Arts.
OUTDOOR
Alice Mizrachi: Unifying Threads of Our Evolution
8 Mar. – 18 May 2025
Photo by Jazzmine Beaulieu
In this work, Mizrachi seeks to illustrate the threads of connection that run through our lives—threads of love, resilience, struggle, and triumph. Each element within the mural symbolizes a different aspect of our shared evolution, highlighting the ways in which we learn from one another, grow together, and adapt to the ever-changing landscape of our world.
As we navigate the complexities of our modern existence, it is vital to recognize that our evolution is not a solitary journey but a shared experience. This mural invites viewers to reflect on their own connections and the impact of their relationships on personal and communal growth. Through the act of coming together—celebrating our shared stories and honoring our individual paths—we can forge a more inclusive, compassionate future.
GALLERY 2, THEATER GALLERY, and OUTDOOR
The Unknown and Its Poetics
Curated by Adrián S. Bará
24 May – 21 Dec. 2025
This exhibition presents a group of works by international artists that live or have lived away from their home country and have been impacted by cross-cultural influences. Artist whose abstract work engages experiences and identities related to migration, the unknown and the construction of home. As the Italian painter Giorgio Morandi once said, “Nothing is more abstract than reality.”
The group of artist included in this survey share the ability to communicate the importance of the small poetic gesture, and explore what we call reality¨ through the language of abstraction.
Through works in a range of media, this exhibition will span throughout the art center and will address relationships between cultures, languages, and political systems, American Life under capitalism, individuality and liberation.
Past Exhibitions
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2024 KinoSaito Annual
Community Art Benefit
Curated by KinoSaito Art Center
13-15 Dec. 2024 -
Kikuo Saito: Summer Song
Curated by Kikuo Saito Studio
11 May – 15 Dec. 2024 -
Chie Fueki: Petal Storm Memory
Curated by David A. Ross
11 May – 15 Dec. 2024 -
NON Objectified
Curated by Kathy Battista
11 May – 15 Dec. 2024 -
Natsuki Takauji: The Heart of the Tree
11 May – 15 Dec. 2024
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Kikuo Saito: Unraveling
Curated by Kikuo Saito Studio
9 Mar. – 5 May 2024 -
Alina Tenser: Wrk Frm Hm
Curated by Sarah Strauss
9 Mar. – 5 May 2024 -
Bel Falleiros: Navel-Knot // Root-Rise
Curated by Jess Wilcox and organized in partnership with River Valley Arts Collective
9 Mar. – 5 May 2024 -
Ricardo de Oliveira: As The Years Went On… (Woman’s Eye)
Curated by CLEA RSKY
9 Mar. – 5 May 2024 -
KinoSaito Annual: Community Art Benefit
Curated by KinoSaito Art Center
15-17 Dec. 2023 -
Lee Tribe
Curated by Kikuo Saito Studio
2 Sep. – 17 Dec. 2023 -
Kikuo Saito and Friends: New York City Downtown and Beyond, 1970s and 1980s
Curated by Karen Wilkin
13 May – 17 Dec. 2023 -
Niki Lederer: Knickerbocker Ice
Curated by Kikuo Saito Studio
4 Mar. – 30 Aug. 2023 -
Kikuo Saito: Pictorial Clay
Curated by Jim Walsh
4 Mar. – 7 May 2023 -
Patrice Renee Washington: Tendersweet
Curated by Olga Dekalo and organized in partnership with River Valley Arts Collective
4 Mar. – 7 May 2023 -
Murray Hochman: New Dimensions
Curated by Kikuo Saito Studio
4 Mar. – 7 May 2023 -
Kikuo Saito: Hatching Color
Curated by Kikuo Saito Studio
9 Sep. - 18 Dec. 2022 -
Signaling
Curated by Alexander Provan
9 Sep. - 11 Dec. 2022 -
XYZ: Alphabetical Ruptures and Reformations
Curated by Sophie Landres
8 Jul. - 4 Sep. 2022 -
Kikuo Saito: The Alphabet Paintings
Curated by Kikuo Saito Studio
3 Jun. - 4 Sep. 2022 -
Pooneh Maghazehe: Half-Life
Curated by Beth Venn
6 May – 26 Jun. 2022 -
Material Presence: Kikuo Saito
Curated by Karen Wilkin
4 Mar. – 22 May 2022 -
Material Presence: Jilaine Jones + Fran O’Neill
Curated by Karen Wilkin
4 Mar. – 24 Apr. 2022 -
Christina McPhee: Regeneration
Curated by Beth Venn
4 Mar. – 24 Apr. 2022 -
Kikuo Saito: Cloud Paintings
Curated by Kikuo Saito Studio
9 Sep. – 19 Dec. 2021 -
Painting as Performance / Performance as Painting: The Theater Paintings of Kikuo Saito
Curated by Kikuo Saito Studio
9 Sep. – 19 Dec. 2021