Gallery Two, Chicago
Western Exhibitions is thrilled to present our first solo show with Nanako Kono whose paintings, drawings, prints, comics and collages that investigate miscommunication. Taking inspiration from comic strips, she incorporates the intrinsic elements of that format — panels, speech balloons, animated objects, recurring characters, text — as drivers in her narrative driven work. Her process of learning English as a second language sparked an interest in translations and semiotics, leading to the realization that the signs, symbols, and words we choose often fail to convey intended meanings to others. Taking visual and material cues from the Chicago Imagist tradition, Kono’s work explores a playful new way of communication. The show opens on Friday, June 13 with a public reception from 5 to 8pm and runs through August 16. Gallery hours are Tuesday to Saturday, 11am to 6pm.
Kono’s focus on multi-lingual miscommunication led her to consider other contributing factors of the dynamic: power imbalances and non-literal language use. Kono uses flatness, transparency, double-sidedness, and thickness of acrylic sheets in her work to convey the multifaceted nature of emotions and perceptions, and the indirect exchange of feelings with others through imaginary borders. Inspired by the Japanese concepts of “tatemae” (public façade) and “honne” (true feelings), as well as manga speech bubbles, Kono’s paintings explore the dichotomy and ambiguity between the external persona and the inner self, revealing the layers of complexity in human emotions and interactions.
Nanako Kono was born in 1999 in Tokyo, Japan. She moved from Japan to Las Vegas, Nevada in 2016. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts with an emphasis on painting, drawing, and printmaking and a minor in Art History at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 2022 and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2025.