Naoto Nakagawa was born in Kobe, Japan in 1944 and in 1962 he immigrated to New York City. His paintings have been widely exhibited, starting in 1968 at the legendary avant-garde Judson Gallery in New York, followed by the Obelisk Gallery in Boston, New York galleries Reese Paley, OK Harris, Allan Frumkin, Victoria Munroe, and Feature Inc., and at Fuji Television Gallery and Tamada Projects in Tokyo, Japan. An exhibition at the Cooper Union Humanities Gallery was curated by Dore Ashton. Most recently, a two-part survey of Nakagawa’s work was mounted with his early work at White Box, NY and his new work at Ethan Cohen Fine Arts, NY, with catalogue essays by Alexandra Munroe, Eric Shiner, John Perreault and Jonathan Goodman.

He has participated in numerous group shows at, among others, The Guggenheim Museum, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Venice Biennale in 2005. His work is included in many public and private collections in the USA, Europe and Japan, including the New York Museum of Modern Art, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Worcester Museum, and The National Museums of Modern Art in Osaka and in Kyoto. The recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant, Nakagawa has taught and lectured at Columbia University and Parsons School of Design. He has been a guest lecturer at The Museum of Modern Art, NY, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA, The Japan Society, NY and the Portland Museum, OR.