Naomi Okubo: Resonance on a Surface

Lu Solano

June 2025

In Resonance on a Surface, Japanese artist Naomi Okubo presents a series of vibrant acrylic paintings and hand-crafted garments in her second solo show at Fou Gallery in New York.

Okubo’s practice explores alternative ways of living that slow down the pace of global culture. Her compositions thoughtfully combine elements of Japanese culture and nature with Western motifs and scientific illustrations. The result is a richly layered visual language that addresses themes of home, intimacy, solitude, and escapism.

Working from digital collages that draw on photography, drawing, and found imagery, Okubo creates meticulously detailed paintings. Her sources range from architecture, interior design, fashion, and art history to textiles, scientific diagrams, and decorative patterns. Each visual element is translated into paint based on how it functions within the overall composition. Some areas are painted directly onto unprimed raw canvas, allowing the pigment to sink into the threads, while others require a gesso barrier, bringing them visually forward. Her decision to unevenly prime the canvas intentionally affects how the viewer’s eye moves across the surface, shaping the perceptual experience of depth and materiality.

A recurring motif in this exhibition are fire flames, which introduces a sense of warmth, light, transformation and liberation. In her reinterpretation of Dancing in the Flames by Nihonga master Hayami Gyoshu (1894–1935), Okubo experiments with color and pattern while seeking to overcome self-destruction and fear sentiments aroused by the painting. Okubo incorporates floral motifs and employs bokashi, the subtle gradation technique used in Japanese woodblock printmaking. This homage to an Important Cultural Property honors traditional Japanese art while contemporizing it through Okubo’s distinctive aesthetic.

A recurring device in Okubo’s paintings is the portrayal of herself as a feminine archetype. She omits facial features, allowing viewers to project their own interpretation onto the figure. In Bird Collector, she collects and composes bird imagery sourced from architecture, fashion, science, and taxidermy. The work also features the historic "Trellis" wallpaper design by William Morris in 1862, which she reimagines in vivid colors and overlays with birds, creating a striking visual tension between tradition and personal symbolism.

From her Tokyo studio, Okubo explores the interplay between indoor and outdoor spaces—a core theme in Japanese culture. Her paintings often depict large windows, inviting viewers to look outward from intimate, enclosed interiors. These domestic spaces, filled with steady, grounded imagery, contrast with dreamlike exteriors—tropical forests, distant geographies, or imagined realms. This juxtaposition may stir conflicting emotions for some viewers, while offering others a balance between control and fantasy.

The exhibition also introduces Okubo’s garments, extending her practice into three dimensions. Her interest in fashion began during adolescence, when she became acutely aware of how appearance affects perception. In response, she embraced fashion as a form of agency. Rather than following trends, she mindfully chooses a labor-intensive process of sourcing patterned fabrics to cut and sew unique garments. This meditative practice allows her to reflect on her identity and how she inhabits her painted worlds. Once a garment is complete, she incorporates it into her compositions, using it to clothe her painted figure.

In paintings such as Canary Cave, the artist’s archetypal character wears a patchwork dress made from American quilting fabrics—a medium historically used by American women for storytelling and activism. Okubo will wear this same dress during the exhibition’s opening, further blurring the line between the artist, the artwork, and the act of presentation.