KinoSaito Presents Kikuo Saito: Dime Lake

Curated by Kikuo Saito Studio and Kristin Larkin LoGerfo

June 25 — December 20, 2026

Verplanck, NY (June 2026)— KinoSaito is pleased to present Kikuo Saito: Dime Lake exhibition, curated by both Kikuo Saito Studio and Kristin Larkin LoGerfo, this will take place from June 25th to December 20th, 2026. The exhibition will be in the Larkin LoGerfo Gallery with works from Kikuo Saito, Paul LoGerfo, and Kristin Larkin LoGerfo. The Opening Reception will be held alongside Upstate Art Weekend on Saturday, June 27th, 2026, from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. The reception is free to the public, and RSVP is highly recommended.

Exhibition Description:

One does not immediately associate Kikuo Saito, master of abstraction, with the landscape genre, and yet he spent much of his life painting the natural scenes around him; from the Hudson Valley to his old summer home in the Victorian-built whaling community of Cape May, New Jersey, from the surfside hamlet of Rincon, Puerto Rico, to the more kempt, parkland precincts and ramshackle urban cores of Madrid, Vienna, and Rome. He never traveled without his sketchbook and watercolors, pastels, charcoal, pencil, and pen, and his plein-air renderings gave figurative expression to his fancy, making his “color fields” bloom and blurring the distinctions among water, cloud, and sky. This show features a diverse selection of these landscapes, along with a major painting — in fact, the last painting Saito ever completed — a large abstract canvas given the landscaped name “Dime Lake.” There is, of course, no real Dime Lake, at least none that Saito ever knew, making his depiction an imaginary vista, the view within, lush with myriad greens. These landscape paintings are displayed alongside works by Kristin Larkin LoGerfo, a student of Saito, and Paul LoGerfo, her husband and the physician of Saito’s first wife, the choreographer and dancer Eva Maier. Brought together by Maier, the friends and companions forged a close bond, particularly through their regular trips together through nature. These works are like the postcards they brought back.

My time with Kikuo (A Note from Kristin Larkin LoGerfo)

“In 1990, I was a new art student. When my husband Paul couldn’t join Kikuo for the opening of his art exhibition in Vienna, I had the extraordinary opportunity to learn and walk in Europe with our very special friend. Paul and Kikuo were as close as brothers, and Paul did not want Kikuo to travel alone after Eva’s death, as he was in the depths of profound sorrow.

‘Take my wife,’ Paul told him, a joke that got Kikuo to laugh.

Kikuo walked everywhere and often sketched in a notepad and worked in watercolor. I followed him through the streets and parks and tried to learn how he simplifies, designs, and creates value structures in paint. He worked in a quiet, unassuming way. It seemed like after a few meditative brushstrokes, a beautiful painting emerged!

Kikuo was shy in Vienna and couldn’t be found when the ambassador was speaking about him to the international crowd. After the opening, instead of meeting with potential collectors, we went on a long walk and sketched. Although it was upsetting to the gallery director, Kikuo traveled to make his art, not for the fancy openings, the fame, or the fortune.

While we were traveling, and over many years of friendship, my husband Paul LoGerfo, a doctor and scientist, was inventing a way to visualize human DNA in his lab. When he created the right formula to visualize the pure DNA, it was Kikuo who helped him with the placement and design of his sculpture. This sculpture, Paul’s DNA given to Kikuo as a gift, is now part of the exhibition in the Larkin LoGerfo gallery.

My small oil sketch in the show is an homage to Kikuo, who ‘took Paul’s wife’ and taught her his way. The way of a true artist.

With love to Kikuo and Mikiko.”

About the Artist:

Kikuo Saito was born in Tokyo in 1939 and moved to New York in 1966, where he developed his own painting style influenced by Color Field painting. He became deeply involved in theater at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club and worked with directors like Robert Wilson and Jerome Robbins. In the art world, he worked in the studios of renowned painters such as Larry Poons, Kenneth Noland, and Helen Frankenthaler. Balancing theater and painting for many years, he eventually focused solely on his studio practice, creating sophisticated compositions with bold colors and cryptic motifs. As a mentor and teacher, he inspired many artists, writers, architects, and designers who continue their creative work today.

For details on the exhibition, please visit: https://www.kinosaito.org/kikuo-saito-dime-lake. For more information about the artist, please visit: https://www.kinosaito.org/about-kikuo. 

To RSVP to the 2026 Opening Reception at KinoSaito, please visit https://www.kinosaito.org/uaw26. For any inquiries, contact KinoSaito’s Director, Holly Hobart, at [email protected] or 914-293-7468.

KinoSaito

KinoSaito is a nonprofit arts center founded in 2018 and dedicated to the creation of abstract art. We are committed to nurturing art experimentation across all mediums and perpetuating the legacy of our founding muse and Japanese-American artist, Kikuo Saito (1939-2016). The center opened in 2021 upon renovation of its St. Patrick’s Catholic School, located in Verplanck, NY. Since opening our doors, we have served an intergenerational audience of 4,000+ annually.

KinoSaito Programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.