Tadaaki Kuwayama and Rakuko Naito on Sharing a Studio

The division between the personal and professional lives of New York-based artists Rakuko Naito and Tadaaki Kuwayama has long been blurred. For decades, the Japanese-born couple — who immigrated to Manhattan just after their marriage in 1958 — have shared a rambling mixed-use loft space in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighbourhood with a common living space flanked by separate studios. ‘He’s over there and my studio is over here,’ explains the soft-spoken Naito.

Despite their constant close proximity, Naito and Kuwayama’s minimalist work remains distinct. ‘He likes everything more artificially manufactured,’ says Naito of her husband’s mechanically produced, monochromatic works — colour studies framed in metals such as aluminium and titanium.