Keiko Narahashi (b. 1959, Tokyo, Japan) received an MFA in Painting from Bard College, Annandale-On-Hudson, New York, and her BFA from Parsons School of Design, New York. Institutional exhibitions include those at the Art Institute of Chicago; Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York; Sheppard Contemporary Gallery, University of Nevada, Reno; Kuhn Fine Arts Gallery, Ohio State University, Marion; The College Art Gallery, The College of New Jersey; Educational Alliance, New York; Dumbo Arts Center, New York; Dallas Center of Contemporary Art, Texas; Visceglia Gallery, Caldwell College, New Jersey; Korean Cultural Center, Los Angeles; Bard College; Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York; and Usdan Gallery at Bennington College, Vermont. The Whitney Museum of American Art holds an editioned work by Narahashi in its permanent collection. She was a recipient of the Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation Studio Grant, and the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship Grant in Painting.

view Keiko Narahashi's full biography

Press

What to See in N.Y.C. Galleries in July

Read full story on The NY Times

Keiko Narahashi, New York-based sculptor on her show at Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, New York

Read full story on Hot Coffee Conversations

Artist Statement

Once, I saw a butterfly sunning on a stone step, its wings open like a face. As I watched, it slowly folded its wings until only a thin, black line remained.

My clay sculptures spring from a conviction that forms carry emotional and psychological meaning. These shapes waver between human and nonhuman, figure and landscape, and reflect my particular connection to the natural world. The patterns of my life mirror those of the animals, plants and the moon, and sometimes it feels like there are no distinctions at all.

This sense of wonderment arises out of my interest in old folk stories, especially Japanese ghost stories, where humans and animals mutate freely. They are a direct inspiration for my work.

Clay can be both clean or messy; it can be constructed elegantly like architecture, or poked and prodded in sticky lumps. It embodies my contradictory sense of both inhabiting my body and being outside of it.