Nanako Kono Japanese, b. 1999
Biography
Image of the artist Nanako Kono
Born in Tokyo, Japan, Lives in Chicagoland, IL
Education
MFA, The School of The Art Institute of Chicago
BFA in Art, concentrating on painting, drawing, printmaking and minor in Art History University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV.
Nanako Kono’s work examines the boundary between language and interpretation. She is drawn to moments when articulation exceeds intention, when expression slips from human control and new meanings begin to surface.
Informed by the structural logic of comics, Kono incorporates speech balloons, panels, and recurring visual signs into her paintings, merging drawing, print, and collage. The layered transparency of acrylic serves as both a formal and conceptual device, reflecting the mutable relationship between communication and perception.
Her sensitivity to the vitality of objects arises from a Japanese sense of animism, where materials are understood to possess their own quiet agency. This awareness unsettles the distinction between the animate and the inanimate.
Kono’s experience learning English as a second language deepened her engagement with linguistic instability: the way meaning shifts and multiplies as it moves across languages, signs, and systems of representation. In her work, words behave as sentient forms - a latent will emerging through the instruments of making.
Exhibitions
Works
-
Nanako KonoLiquid Courage, 2025acrylic paint on acrylic sheet, laminated on wood panel36 x 24 x 1.5 inView more detailsNanako Kono, Liquid Courage, 2025$ 4,000.00 -
Nanako KonoPeeling off Potato's note, 2024acrylic on canvas41 x 64 in
104.1 x 162.6 cmView more detailsNanako Kono, Peeling off Potato's note, 2024$ 3,000.00 -
Nanako KonoHikidashi (Drawer), 2023acrylic, fabric, gold leaf on canvas and wood34.25 x 27.5 in
87 x 69.8 cmView more detailsNanako Kono, Hikidashi (Drawer), 2023$ 2,500.00
