Katsumi Nakai was born in Hirakata in 1927. He was a Japanese visual artist whose work explored the relationship between painting and sculpture, with a particular focus on the spatial potential of colour and material. He graduated from the Osaka Institute of Fine Arts in 1953 and, from 1953 to 1959, regularly exhibited with the Dokuritsu Bijutsu Kyokai (Independent Art Exhibition). In 1958, he co-founded Tekkeikai, an avant-garde group active in Kyoto and Osaka.
In 1964, Nakai moved to Milan, where he encountered the Italian avant-garde and, in particular, Lucio Fontana’s Spatialism. This encounter led him to explore three-dimensionality and develop the principle of hiraku (“to open”). From 1966 onwards, he began creating works in which painted wooden surfaces open into space, transforming the plane into a dynamic, three-dimensional structure.
Nakai continued to develop hiraku throughout his career, experimenting with different forms, materials and colour combinations. Often characterised by monochrome surfaces that reveal unexpected colours and geometries when opened, his works explore movement, light, space and perception. Although his work has been associated with both Eastern and Western traditions, Nakai did not seek to represent either culture directly. Rather, his practice reflects his experience between Japan and Europe, particularly Kyoto and Milan, where different artistic languages came together.
In 2024, the Centre Pompidou acquired Untitled (1971), the first work by Nakai to enter a European museum collection. Nakai died in 2013.
© Galleria del Naviglio, Milan
GALLERY
KATSUMI NAKAI
Flying High
October - January 2026
Katsumi Nakai
November - December 2019
Japan
September - October 2016
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2026
Katsumi Nakai, Works 1965–1997, Polina Berlin Gallery, New York, USA
2025
Katsumi Nakai, Flying High, Studio Gariboldi, Milan, Italy
2023
Katsumi Nakai: Unfolding, Luxembourg + Co., London, UK
2019
Katsumi Nakai, Studio Gariboldi, Milan, Italy
2018
Ronchini Gallery, London, UK
2016
Katsumi Nakai: Aperture, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Osaka, Japan
2004
Aperto, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Kyoto, Japan
1992
Katsumi Nakai 1967–1986, Hirakata Civic Gotenyama Art Center, Osaka, Japan
1990
Galleria del Naviglio, Milan, Italy
1986
Osaka Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art, Osaka, Japan
1984
Galleria del Naviglio, Milan, Italy
1978
Lyda Levi, Milan, Italy
1976
Galleria del Naviglio, Milan, Italy
Galleria Il Traghetto, Venice, Italy
1975
Galleria Santoro, Rome, Italy
1972
Galleria Christian Stein, Turin, Italy
Galleria del Naviglio, Milan, Italy
1970
Galleria d’Arte L’Argentario, Trento, Italy
1967
Galleria del Naviglio, Milan, Italy
1965
Galleria del Cavallino, Venice, Italy
Form Gallery, Osaka, Japan
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026
Italy–Japan. Japanese Artists in Milan since the 1960s, Studio Gariboldi, Milan, Italy
2016
Japan, Studio Gariboldi, Milan, Italy
2014
Your Monumentally: Collective Art in the 1970s, Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Brescia, Italy
1994
Art of Kansai 1950–1970, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Kobe, Japan
1983
Contemporary Japanese Artists, Triennale di Milano, Milan, Italy
1977
Quadriennale Nazionale d’Arte, Rome, Italy
1975
Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland
1974
Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland
1973
15th Triennale di Milano, Silver Prize, Milan, Italy
1972
Japanese Artists in Europe, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan
Galleria Christian Stein, Turin, Italy
1970
3rd Biennale de Menton, Menton, France
1969
John Cage and the Artists of the Naviglio, Galleria del Naviglio, Milan, Italy
1968
Homage to Carlo Cardazzo, Galleria Il Punto, Turin, Italy
1967
Homage to Spatialism, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Milan, Italy
1960
Young Art Collectors, Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA
