Laura de Santillana and Kikuo Saito:
Floating / Gathering

Lower Gallery
January 29 - April 4, 2026

Exhibition Catalogue

Kikuo Saito and Laura de Santillana shared a love of Japanese aesthetics. Saito was born in Tokyo in 1939 and moved to New York in 1966, where he worked as a painter and performer. De Santillana was born in 1955 in Venice and had a lifelong fascination with the meditative quality of Kyoto, the films of Ozu, and the neon lights of Tokyo. This is the first time the two artists have been exhibited together.

"The marks in [Saito's] paintings, now floating, now gathering in conversational groups.. have become eloquent signs, carriers not only of the complex colors with which Saito builds his paintings, but also of deep feeling and energy."
Karen Wilkin

"[Saito's work reminds me of] looking at the ocean... He painted an ocean, very quickly, and [spent] forever trying to figure out what part of it to look at."
Joshua Cohen

"I love to go to Murano at six AM by boat, in the morning light... My work is about refracted light, low water and the horizon line."
Laura de Santillana

“I always wanted to paint with drawing."
Kikuo Saito

"The first [Flag] sculptures reminded me of canvases... I cannot imagine doing anything more painterly than with glass."
Laura de Santillana

"When illuminated, [de Santillana's sculptures] metamorphose. With every viewer’s movement, radiant edges, emerging colors, and shimmering surfaces burst forth."
Gallerie dell’Accademia di Venezia

"Kikuo Saito had two métiers, as an abstract painter and as a creator of experimental theater performances... These polarities can also be seen clearly in his paintings."
John Dorfman

"It starts with the breath. I like working with glass because you put air—your breath—inside the material and you close it inside. It’s the moment between inhaling and exhaling... The accidents are written inside the piece."
Laura de Santillana