Rei Naito was born in 1961 in Hiroshima. Currently lives and works in Tokyo. In 1985, she graduated from the Musashino Art University, College of Art and Design, Visual Communication Design.

She first came to public recognition with “One Place on The Earth”, at Sagacho Exhibit Space, Tokyo in 1991. This led to her being invited to install the same piece within the Japanese Pavilion at the 47h Venice Biennale in 1997. Her work asks us “Is our existence on the Earth a blessing in itself?”

Notable solo exhibitions include “Migoto ni harete otozureru wo mate”, The National Museum of Art, Osaka (1995); “Being Called”, Karmeliterkloster, Frankfurt am Main (1997); “Tout animal est dans le monde comme de l’eau à l’intérieur de l’eau”, The Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura, Kanagawa (2009); “the emotion of belief”, Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, Tokyo (2014); “the emotion of belief”, The Japan Cultural Institute in Paris (2017); “Two Lives”, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv (2017); “on the bright Earth I see you”, Contemporary Art Center, Art Tower Mito, Ibaraki (2018); “Mirror Creation”, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Ishikawa and “breath”, Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München, Munich (2023.)

Permanent installations include “Being given” (Kinza, Art House Project, Naoshima, Kagawa, 2001), “Matrix” (Teshima Art Museum, Teshima, Kagawa, 2010). Awards received include Promising Artists and Scholars of Contemporary Japanese Arts by Japan Arts Foundation, (Installation field, 1994), 1st Asahi Beer Arts Awards by Asahi Beer Arts Foundation (2003), 60th Mainichi Art Prize (2018) and 69th Minister of Education Award for Fine Arts (2019).

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