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, 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
Rueven Israel: U.F.O. (Unidentified Folding Object) 1336
Curated by Sarah Strauss
8 Mar. – 18 May 2025
THEATER GALLERY
Bruce Odland & Soli Pierce: Between Worlds
8 Mar. – 18 May 2025
OUTDOOR
Alice Mizrachi
8 Mar. – 18 May 2025
Alice Mizrachi is a New York based interdisciplinary artist and educator working in the mediums of painting, murals and installation. Her work explores the interconnectedness of individuals and community through the dual lens of compassion and empathy. Through figurative work that reinforces both personal and community-oriented identity, Alice aims to inspire creative expression and a sense of shared humanity through art.
As a painter, Alice maintains both a studio practice and an extensive body of work as a muralist. Her work have been featured in exhibitions at the Museum of the City of New York, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the United Nations and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Washington DC. She has been commissioned as a mural artist for projects in Amsterdam, Berlin, Tel Aviv, and across the United States by organizations including: Wall Therapy (Rochester, NY); La Mama and Fourth Arts Block (NYC); Baldwin Civic Association (Baldwin, NY); and, Chashama (Harlem, NY), among others.
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