Banquet of Life: Nihonga Paintings by Daisuke Nakano

NEW YORK, NY – Ippodo Gallery is pleased to announce Banquet of Life: Nihonga Paintings by Daisuke Nakano, the Japanese painter’s long-awaited third New York solo exhibition, coinciding with Asia Week New York 2026. Eleven new works, on view from March 19 to April 18, 2026, mark the pivotal transition of seasons. Daisuke Nakano celebrates the natural world through glorious depictions of flora and fauna: blanketed in shimmering snow, at the turning point of the springtime thaw, and in full blooming colors. 

Native to Kyoto and a master of Nihonga painting traditions, Daisuke Nakano (b. 1974) draws upon historical Japanese image-making to paint bright scenes of nature in a state of undisturbed purity. Each pigment is ground from rare and precious minerals mixed with nikawa, deer-collagen glue, and placed upon a background of gold and silver leaf on washi paper in keeping with the methods developed in Japan for centuries. Nakano’s influences draw primarily from paradigms codified during the height of Edo (1615–1868) aesthetics, which often centered imagined landscapes and the life teeming therein. 

Nakano stands out as a luminary force among those few remaining Nihonga traditionalists today, evoking classical ideas and pushing them to their limits of color, composition, and craftsmanship. His scenes are overflowing with flourishes of complementary colors and dynamic interplay of lively bodies of birds, insects and flowers. Though filled to the point of bursting, Nakano’s canvases strike a balance even as forms and colors overlap with spirited energy. Each line—the primary pictorial tool of Nihonga painters—captures personality and movement with animated grace.

To be Alive in this Moment

— Shoko Aono, Spring 2026

Filled with the bursting vitality of living creatures, the world that Daisuke Nakano depicts is invariably light itself.
His obsession is to dedicate his life to a single line and pour his blood into a single color. While employing the traditional materials and techniques of Japanese Nihonga painting, Nakano challenges himself to seal movement within the stillness of a two-dimensional world. By remaining faithful to the finest details, he is able to control the overwhelming power of nature and govern the great cycle of life. This paradox is the true essence of the contemporary artist, Daisuke Nakano.

New York, this "man-made jungle" of intricately intertwined iron, glass, and concrete, is the crystallization of frantic human energy. However, when the vivid breath of life painted by Nakano is released into the heart of this cold, inorganic landscape, an unprecedented resonance is born.

The flowers and creatures densely painted across the screen celebrate the climax of life and envelop us in a warmth akin to basking in the sun. Like wild blossoms sprouting from cracks in the concrete, Nakano’s work teaches us that the hustle and bustle of the city and the beauty of nature are bound by a single truth: they are alive. This is “Japanese Painting in the Reiwa Era,” which illuminates the chaotic world and serves as the ultimate tribute to the fact that we are living in this very moment.

"Whether I am painting animals or flowers, I have never forgotten about human beings."

As the artist himself says, the "Banquet of Life" that he depicts is a blessing to the lives of each and every one of us. Amidst dazzling colors and a fragrance that blends enchantment and sanctity, I hope you will momentarily forget reality and lose yourself in this vivid feast where the city and nature dissolve into one.

Drawing on the techniques of Japanese painting that have been passed down for centuries, Japanese painter Daisuke Nakano uses folding screens and other supports to capture the shifting play of light and the vibrant energy of life, creating paradisiacal landscapes overgrown with fantastical flora. In doing so, he elevates historically grounded techniques and materiality into a contemporary visual language.

In June 2021, amid the COVID-19 pandemic when connections became tenuous and many people could only find their place in nature through their distance from it, the first Daisuke Nakano exhibition on the West Coast opened at the Portland Japanese Garden. Intertwining traditional Japanese techniques with the unique color sensibility of Western naturalism, Nakano’s works created a dreamlike space woven with wildlife and lush, utopian landscapes. This worldview swiftly resonated beyond art enthusiasts, captivating a broader audience familiar with the aesthetics of gardens and Japanese music. His supple, translucent colors enchanted countless viewers.

Nakano’s dynamic, shimmering depictions, imbued with a depth and three-dimensionality akin to prayer, beckon the viewer into this paradise. And the artist's gaze, seemingly capturing reality more vividly than reality itself, speaks quietly to us.

“Eternity dwells within movement, and energy stirs within stillness.”

Come witness the tapestry of Banquet of Life.