Whitestone Gallery Presents “Three Women Across Generations: Toko Shinoda, Atsuko Tanaka, and Dai Ying” at the New York Armory Show 2026

Whitestone Gallery is proud to present “Three Women Across Generations: Toko Shinoda, Atsuko Tanaka, and Dai Ying” at the New York Armory Show 2026. We are proud to present the works of three groundbreaking women artists—Toko Shinoda (1913–2021), Atsuko Tanaka (1932–2005), and Dai Ying (1983–). This remarkable showcase explores feminine power, cultural evolution, and the limitless potential of abstraction through their diverse forms of expression.

Atsuko Tanaka, a pivotal member of the Japanese avant-garde Gutai Art Association, was a pioneer in breaking the boundaries between art and life through performance, installations, and painting. Her iconic “Electric Dress” (1956)—a wearable sculpture composed of flashing lightbulbs and colourful electric wires—epitomized her experimental approach to technology and human connection.

Atsuko Tanaka｜02E（T01099), 2002, Synthetic, resin, acrylic on canvas, 161.9 × 130.8 cm

At Whitestone Gallery’s presentation, Tanaka’s painting “Work” (1970) will make its New York debut. Created after her departure from Gutai, this piece translates the essence of her Electric Dress into a two-dimensional format, seamlessly integrating performative gestures with pictorial abstraction. The painting’s visual language—a vibrant network of interconnected circles and lines—reflects her exploration of societal relationships, technological advances, and dynamic experimentation.

The execution of lines is central to Tanaka’s practice, as they forge connections between circles, symbolizing relationships not only between forms and colours but also between individuals and society. Her innovative use of vinyl and enamel paint broke away from traditional art materials, lending her works a unique physicality and energy. These layered compositions exude a sense of movement and rhythm, encapsulating the dazzling vitality of mid-20th century Japan.

Tanaka’s deeply rooted philosophical perspective on the universe, nature, life, and art imbued her work with extraordinary power, establishing her as a pioneer of post-war art. Her legacy endures in major international collections, including The Museum of Modern Art (New York) and The National Museum of Modern Art (Tokyo). She has also been featured in landmark exhibitions such as “Women in Abstraction” at the Centre Pompidou and Guggenheim Bilbao in 2021, and “Anti-Action: Artist-Women’s Challenges and Responses in Postwar Japan” at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, in 2025.

Toko Shinoda was an artistic legend who merged the traditions of sumi ink painting with the bold dynamism of Abstract Expressionism. With a career spanning over eight decades, Shinoda defied artistic conventions, embracing her calligraphic roots while introducing modern abstraction inspired by her time in New York, where she engaged with contemporaries such as Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko.

Shinoda’s work is renowned for its graceful brushwork, striking contrasts of ink concentrations, and meditative calm, transcending language and culture. Her monumental piece, “Cherishing” (1977)—included in this exhibition—epitomizes these qualities, embodying timeless elegance and balance. The fluidity and immediacy of her sumi ink compositions evoke philosophical depth steeped in classical Chinese texts, while achieving a universal resonance through abstraction.

In the mid-1960s, Shinoda began exploring the lithographic medium, collaborating with master printer Kimura Kihachi. This fruitful partnership allowed her to create editions that retained her signature balance of texture and composition. Shinoda personally drew each image onto the printing plates, with Kimura expertly translating her vision onto paper. Once the editions were printed, Shinoda would add finishing hand-painted touches, injecting unique vibrancy and depth into each work.

Toko Shinoda’s works are collected by some of the world’s most prestigious museums, including: The Museum of Modern Art (New York), The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York), The British Museum (London), among many other institutions.

Dai Ying builds on a foundation of traditional Chinese painting while exploring contemporary issues of female power, cultural identity, and cosmic logic. Based in New York and Beijing, Dai Ying creates intricate visual structures using Chinese rice paper, silk, and elements like acrylics, mineral pigments, and oil paint, layering mediums to create a hybrid system of artistic expression.

Dai’s recurring visual motif, the counterclockwise spiral, symbolizes fertility, energy flow, and reconnection to primal vitality. Drawing on ritualistic colour systems—ochre red for lifeblood, iron black for creation, and deep green for earth’s protection—her captivating works evoke the relationship between the body, earth, and universe.

Dai Ying｜Goddess 25, 2025, Chinese painting pigments, Japanese pigments, acrylic, oil on Chinese xuan paper, 90.5 × 89.5 cm

Dai Ying’s latest works will be presented by the gallery, inviting viewers to experience a dynamic confluence of chance, control, and subconscious emotion that challenges the conventional boundaries of Eastern and Western artistic vocabularies.

Whitestone Gallery unites these three visionary women artists across time, materials, and styles. From the bold innovations of Atsuko Tanaka, to the meditative dynamism of Toko Shinoda, and the cosmic layers of Dai Ying, their works illuminate the profound connections between personal narratives, societal transformation, and artistic evolution.