ARTIST CV

NAOMI KAWANISHI REIS リース直美
b. Shiga, Japan. Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY

SOLO AND TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2024 Strange Light, Morgan Lehman gallery, New York, NY
2022 Talisman for Unknown Territories, Woskob Gallery, College of Arts & Architecture
Penn State, State College, PA, curated by Zsuzsanna Nagy
Encounter/Exchange, with Tiffany Calvert, Praise Shadows Gallery, Boston, MA,
curated by Sarah Burney and Amethyst Rey Beaver
2021 Wildflowers & Fever Dreams, with Christopher Rodriguez, Transmitter, Brooklyn, NY
2019 Mirror Room, Standard Space, Sharon, CT
2017 A Walk Around the Sun, Youkobo Art Space, Tokyo, Japan
2015 Paradise Constructed, Mixed Greens, New York, NY
2014 Planted, Windows Project, Mixed Greens, New York, NY
2013 Borrowed Landscapes, Horticultural Society of NY Project Space,
curated by Chris Murtha, New York, NY
Unnatural Selection, Tiger Strikes Asteroid NY, Brooklyn, NY    
2011 Inside Out, Swig Arts Center, Mariboe Gallery, Hightstown, NJ

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 The Brooklyn Artists Exhibition, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
2023 Just Between Us, Pearl River Mart, New York, NY (curated by Danielle Wu and Howie
Chen) - reviewed in the NY Times, ArtNews
Gathering, Five Myles, Brooklyn, NY (curated by Sophia Ma and Cecile Chong)
2022 XX, Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York, NY
Carving with Color, Sugarlift, New York, NY
2021 Still, Life, three-person exhibition with Asuka Hishiki and Sakiko Kurita,
@KCUA Gallery, Kyoto, Japan
2020 Vision Acuity, Clandestine, Miami, FL
Neo-Orientalist Redux, SPRING BREAK 2020, Room 1116, Atlantic Production Center,
New York, NY, curated by Nina Horisaki-Christens
Returning to the Source, Wave Hill House, Wave Hill, Bronx, NY
2019 Decade, AHL Foundation at SFA Projects, New York, NY, curated by Sun You
2018 Safe Imagination is Boring, Furman Gallery, New York Asian Film Festival at
Walter Reade Theater, New York, NY, curated by Yujin Lee
Cabin Fever, 1708 Gallery, Richmond, VA
2017 Point of Entry, Scotty gallery, Berlin, Germany
Stairgazing, Contemporary Art Center of New Jersey, Summit, NJ
Collage Collaborations, Children’s Museum of Manhattan, New York, NY 
2016 Fabulous You, Tiger Strikes Asteroid NY, Brooklyn, NY
Garden Week, 1708 Gallery, Richmond, VA
Solitary Refinement, 2015 NYFA Fellowship finalists, New York Foundation for the Arts,
Brooklyn, NY, curated by David Terry 
Nature, The Center for Contemporary Art, Bedminster, NJ; curated by Wes Sherman
2015 Once Removed, Room 218, Artist-Run at the Satellite Show, Miami Beach, FL
Natural States, Dowd Fine Arts Center, State University of New York College at
Cortland, Cortland, NY
This Dust II, GSL Projekt, Berlin, Germany
2014 Back to Eden, the Museum of Biblical Art, New York, NY (catalogue);
curated by Jennifer Scanlan
Prickly, Tender and Steamy, Glyndor Gallery, Wave Hill, Bronx, NY (catalogue) 
New Visions: Crown Heights Artists, Five Myles, Brooklyn, NY,
curated by Carl E. Hazelwood and Hanne Tierney
2013 American Beauty, Susan Inglett Gallery, New York, NY, curated by William Villalongo
We Are Still Here: Art in the Bronx, Andrew Freeman House, Wave Hill Armory
Arts Week, Bronx, NY 
New Prints 2013/Winter, International Print Center, New York, NY
2012 Everything Is Not All There Is, Lower East Side Printshop, New York, NY,
curated by Nicole Caruth
First Contact, Field Projects, New York, NY; curated by Jacob Rhodes
2011 No Land, Kunsthalle Galapagos, Brooklyn, NY,
curated by J. McKim, G. Kazer, E. Hougen, L. Schell Dickens
2010 BAM Next Wave Art, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, NY,
curated by Dan Cameron
2009 Vertical Gardens, Exit Art, New York, NY (catalogue),
curated by Jeanette Ingberman, Herb Tam, Lauren Rosati

AWARDS / RESIDENCIES
2022 FST StudioProjects Fund Award, New York, NY
Willapa Bay AiR, Oysterville, WA
2018 Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant
2017 Youkobo Art Space Artist in Residency Program, Tokyo, Japan
2015 NYFA Artist Fellowship Finalist, Painting
Yaddo Residency, Saratoga Springs, NY
2014 Jentel Residency, Banner, WY
2013 Wave Hill Winter Workspace Residency, Bronx, NY
2011  Lower East Side Printshop Keyholder Residency, New York, NY
2011 Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop SIP Fellowship, New York, NY
2010 NYFA “Artists as Entrepreneurs” Program, Brooklyn, NY
2005 Millay Colony Residency Award, Austerlitz, NY
2005 Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Creative Fellow
2004 Vermont Studio Center Scholarship Award, Johnson, VT

CURATORIAL, PROJECTS, LECTURES, WORKSHOPS
2022 cover image, “Pink Waves” by Sawako Nakayasu, Omnidawn Publishing Inc.
contributor to “Earthly Delights,” edited by Chapelle Adams, Danielle Wu
2021 Pratt Institute, Guest Critic: Senior Drawing class (Professor Fay Ku), April 21
2020 Borrowed Landscapes: artistic practice as space making; featured speaker for the
Anderson Lecture Series at the School of Visual Arts, Penn State College School of
Arts and Architecture, Sept 28
2019 No Place Like, Field Projects, New York, NY; group exhibition juried and
curated by AN/OTHER NY
2018 Soft White Feel Flower Run with poet Sawako Nakayasu, Look Books View-Master
series, produced by Container
Curators in Conversation: AN/OTHER NY, Museum of Chinese in America,
New York, NY, Aug. 2 (in conjunction with On Whiteness, an exhibition organized by
the Racial Imaginary Institute at The Kitchen)  
Behind-the-Scenes with Curators (Howie Chen/Andrew Lampert, Andrew Rebatta,
Karen Wong, moderated by Stephanie Tung), co-organized with AN/OTHER NY and
the Asian American Arts Alliance at CUE Foundation, New York, NY, March 6
2017 Collage Collaborations workshops at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan,
New York, NY, April 2 & April 7
JPEG Slam, organized with AN/OTHER NY at the Asian American Arts Alliance,
Brooklyn, NY, Nov. 7
x≈y: An Act of Translation, Tiger Strikes Asteroid NY, Brooklyn, NY;
co-curated with Andrew Prayzner
Leadership Camp participant, Asia Art Archive in America, Brooklyn, NY
2016 Field Studies, Tiger Strikes Asteroid NY, Brooklyn, NY;
co-curated with Andrew Prayzner
2015  Made in U.S.A./Some Parts Imported at Tiger Strikes Asteroid NY, Brooklyn, NY
(catalogue); co-curated with Heidi Lau
Co-founder, AN/OTHER NY, Brooklyn, NY
Visiting artist, Moore College of Art, Philadelphia, PA, Dec. 9
Artist talk at Nassau Community College, Garden City, NY, Nov. 24
Artist talk at Trestle gallery, Brooklyn, NY, Nov. 10
Panel discussion ”The Artist's Experience: What a Visual Arts Administrator Should
Know,”  NYU Graduate School of Visual Arts Administration, Sept. 25
2014 Visiting artist, Sheridan Collage, Sheridan, WY, Sept. 30 
Moderated Art21/Cue Foundation Book Club #2, New York, NY, June 26
“Planting the Seed: Garden as Symbol in Contemporary Art,” talk with Back to Eden
curator Jennifer Scanlan & artist Lina Puerta, Museum of Biblical Art, NY, NY, Aug. 24
2013 Co-organizer inaugural Flat File program 2014, Tiger Strikes Asteroid NY, Brooklyn, NY
Winter Workspace: Visualizing the Imaginary (March 4) and Collaborative Drawing
(March 9) Workshop Instructor, Wave Hill, Bronx, NY
2012 Founding member/Assistant Director, Tiger Strikes Asteroid NY, Brooklyn, NY
Creative Nonfiction, co-curated with a team of 7 at Kunsthalle Galapagos,
Brooklyn, NY, Aug. 23
2011 The Artist Life in New York, NYFA panel discussion at Pratt Institute, Feb. 1
NYFA “Strategic Planning for Artists” Program at the Pratt Institute, co-organizer,
Spring 2011
Presentation of Recent Work, artist lecture, Swig Arts Center, Hightstown, NJ, Jan. 14
2005 Visual Studies, Teaching Assistant, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
2004 2D-Design, Teaching Assistant, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2022 Beaver, Amethyst Rey and Burney, Sarah. “Encounter / Exchange: Tiffany Calvert &
Naomi Reis,” exhibition catalogue for two-person exhibition at Praise Shadows Art
Gallery, Brookline, MA
2021 Yaniv, Etty. “Naomi Kawanishi Reis: Snippets of Beauty,” artspiel.com, July 19
“Naomi Kawanishi Reis and Alex Paik,” correspondencearchive.com, May 14
2018 “Joan Mitchell Foundation Names 2018 Grant Recipients,” Artforum, Dec. 12
"Joan Mitchell Foundation Names Recipients of 2018 Painters & Sculptors Grants,”
Artnews, Dec. 12, 2018
2016 Soligno, Matilde. “Art Tour NY | Bushwick Galleries, Summer 2016,” Droste Effect,
July 27
2015 Voon, Claire. "At Pulse Miami Beach, Plants, Plants Everywhere,"
hyperallergic.com, Dec. 2
Allenchy, Alex. "Naomi Reis Reconstructed Paradise, One Leaf at a Time,"
artsy.net, Sept. 25 
Keh, Pei-Ru. “Wall Space: Brooklyn Artists Think Big With Mural Project,”
Wallpaper Magazine, Aug. 17
“10 Murals Transform a Brooklyn Neighborhood Into a Public Art Haven,”
Huffington Post, Aug. 17
“Artists Create 820-Foot-Long Mural on Pacific Park Brooklyn Construction Wall,”
NY1, Aug. 16
Chae, Julie. “Made in USA/Some Parts Imported at Tiger Strikes Asteroid New York,”
theagoraculture.com, Aug. 4
Sutton, Benjamin. “Artworks Cobbled Together From Immigrant Experiences,”
hyperallergic.com, July 30
Farley, Michael Anthony, and Kirsch, Corinna. “This Week’s Must-See Art Events:
Brooklyn Is America Too,” artfcity.com, June 29
Ryzik, Melena. “10 Murals in Brooklyn to Spruce Up Construction Site,”
The New York Times, July 20
Budds, Diana. “Modern World,” Dwell magazine, June, p.33
Kaiser, Renee. “This Dust,” thisistomorrow.com, March 18
2014 Johnson, Paddy. “Pulse Continues to Make Strides,” ArtFCity, Dec. 6
Kropp, Emily. “Pulse: Ink and Paper Obsessive Tendencies,” Whitewall, Dec. 6
Mor, Ricardo. “Art Basel: Pulse Launches 10th Year With Move to the Beach,”
Miami Herald, Dec. 5
Martinez, Alanna. “A Tour of Pulse Miami Beach: Glowing Books and
Camouflaged Art,” New York Observer, Dec. 5
Sutton, Benjamin. “Making Cents of Exchange Rates Bushwick,”
hyperallergic.com, Oct 27
Johnson, Ken. “A Garden Divine: Beware of Snake,” The New York Times, July 17
Sutton, Benjamin. “Yes, More Brooklyn Gallerists You Need to Know,”
artnetnews.com, March 5
2013  Singer, Jill. “Excerpt: Magazine. Wilder Quarterly, Spring 2013,”
sightunseen.com, June 22
Sutton, Benjamin. “10 Must-Visit Studios, 10 Must-See Exhibitions, and More at
Bushwick Open Studios,” blogs.artinfo.com, May 30
Galgiani, Allison. “5 Extraordinary Art Openings This Weekend,”
bushwickdaily.com, May 17
2011 Tsui, Bonnie. “Art in Residence: The James New York,” phaidon.com, Feb 28
Klanten, R. et al. “My Green City,” Gestalten, Berlin, pp.158-159
“The Gravity Neutral Space Between,” Juxtapoz Magazine blog, May 13
2010 New American Paintings #86. Juror: Monica Ramirez-Montagut, curator of the
Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum
2009 Vertical Gardens Exhibition Catalogue, Exit Art
“Sunday Arts News for 5/3/09,” 1:25 min - 2:05 min, Channel 13:
Sunday Art News, May 3
Dawson, Gloria. “The Past, Present and Future of Green Roofs and
Vertical Gardens,” thedailygreen.com
Björk, Johanna. “Vertical Gardens,” www.goodlifer.com/2009/03/vertical-gardens,
March 30
Indresik, Scott. “This Place Does Not Exist: Naomi Reis and the Architecture of
Utopia,” Anthem Magazine, Jan/Feb, pp. 44-45
Padgitt-Coles, Camilla. “March 28 - Vertical Gardens Opening at Exit Art,”
Arthur Magazine, March 26 
2008 Grawe, Sam. “Theme Attic: Bauhaus,” Dwell Magazine, December
(cover image) Canarium One, Canarium Books, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Weng, Sasha. City Adventure: Naomi Reis, dpi Magazine Taiwan, July, pp. 83-87
Kim, Na-ring. World Artists, ElleGirl Korea, July, p.98
2005 Hill, Lori. “First Friday Focus: The Ice Box,” City Paper Philadelphia, May 5-11, p.43
New American Paintings, Mid-Atlantic Edition, April; Juror: Jonathan Binstock,
Curator of Contemporary Art, The Corcoran Museum of Art

COLLECTIONS
Credit Suisse, New York, NY
Fidelity Investments, Boston, MA
Ford Foundation, New York, NY
James Hotel, New York, NY
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, NY
New York Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY

EDUCATION
2005   MFA, Fine Arts, School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
1997   BA, Transcultural Identity, Hamilton College, Clinton, NY
1993   Doshisha International High School/Osaka International High School, Japan 

Born in Shiga, Japan, Naomi Kawanishi Reis makes 2D works using everyday materials like paper, blades, and brushes to focus on idealized spaces—utopian architecture, conservatory gardens, and still life. Reis also works as a Japanese-English translator; her visual practice provides a way to think directly through the hands via manual labor in a space without words. She currently lives on unceded Lenape land in Brooklyn, NY.

She has exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum, Morgan Lehman (New York), Praise Shadows (Boston) @KCUA (Kyoto), Youkobo Art Space (Tokyo), Transmitter (Brooklyn, NY), Mixed Greens (New York, NY), and Brooklyn Academy of Music, among others. In 2018 she received a Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant, and in 2015 was a NYFA Finalist in Painting. Residencies that have supported her work include Yaddo, Wave Hill (Bronx, NY), the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, and the Lower East Side Printshop. A founding member of artist-run gallery Tiger Strikes Asteroid NY (2012-2017), in 2015-2019 she co-organized the collective AN/OTHER NY: a nomadic workspace for Asian art practitioners to gather through workshops and public events. She is also a founding member of the Inner Fields NY sangha and reading group. She holds an MFA from the University of Pennsylvania, and a BA in Transcultural Identity from Hamilton College.