Kaikai Kiki Gallery is pleased to announce “Respawn Point”, the first solo exhibition by Naoki Saito, which will open on February 28, 2025.
Naoki Saito is a well-known illustrator for a popular card game, a character designer, and a content creator who shares his artistic know-hows with 643,000 subscribers (as of January 27, 2025) through his YouTube channel. Although he has long primarily created art digitally, a turning point came on March 9, 2024, when he released a YouTube video titled “What Happens When a Professional Artist Does Graffiti on the Wall of a Shop?”. This video caught the attention of Takashi Murakami, who subsequently invited Saito to try his hand at analog painting.
Within just a few days, the concept for his solo exhibition at Kaikai Kiki Gallery was formed, and in no time, he completed his first acrylic painting, “SAMURAI GIRL 桜 -SAKURA-“. This piece made its debut at Art Basel Hong Kong 2024 in March, and he has since presented additional new works at other international art fairs such as Taipei Dangdai 2024, Tokyo Gendai 2024, and Asia NOW 2024.
Saito’s works are deeply rooted in the visual language of trading card games and social games, realms in which he has long been active. His unique composition style places the character’s full body within a 10:7.16 vertical frame—consistent with trading card aspect ratio—while enlarging the character’s head for dramatic effect. This distinctive visual structure, unprecedented in the history of traditional painting, is something Saito developed through years of working on social game illustrations.
For this exhibition, Saito began creating analog paintings based on his “SAMURAI GIRL” NFT trilogy, which were originally released in 2021, incorporating the trading card frame format into physical artworks. Additionally, he has expanded into using circular and square canvases, with his largest tondo pieces incorporating gold leaf on acrylic painting, further pushing his artistic techniques. His evolving skills are reflected in each new work, as he rapidly absorbs new analog painting methods.
“Respawn Point” serves as the grand culmination of this groundbreaking project, which began in March 2024 and gradually unfolded through various international art fairs in which Kaikai Kiki Gallery has participated. We invite you to witness Naoki Saito’s bold exploration into the world of analog painting, developed through a year of dedicated effort.
Message from the Artist
In the course of living our daily lives, there are moments when, by chance or by necessity, we are forced to abandon everything we’ve built up or believed in up to that point and start entirely anew.
Having called myself an illustrator for over 20 years, I had experienced such rebirths several times. But on March 22, 2023, I experienced a drastic one: my YouTube account, into which I had poured my heart and soul for years, was banned.
For me, this was nothing short of “death.” For a while, I was utterly dazed.
But then, as I slowly regained my composure, I began to think about how I might start over.
It was during this time that I was given a wonderful opportunity, to take on the challenge of analog art, a departure from the digital illustrations I had been creating until then.
Life is long, and such “deaths” can come unexpectedly without warning. But as long as we don’t stop moving forward, we may continue to play a new stage, as if resuming a game.
I want to make this moment and place my “Respawn Point,” a place to rise again and step back into the fight.
Naoki Saito
1982 Born in Yamagata city, Yamagata Prefecture
2005 Graduated from the Department of Graphic Design, Tama Art University
Naoki Saito began his career as an illustrator in 2002, working on card game illustrations and video game character designs. He launched his YouTube channel in 2019. As a YouTuber, he actively shares his techniques for improving illustrations.
Exhibition Overview
Naoki Saito Solo Exhibition: “Respawn Point”
Exhibition Period: February 28 (Fri) – March 21 (Fri), 2025
Gallery Hours: 11:00 – 19:00
Closed: Sundays, Mondays and Public Holidays
Venue: Kaikai Kiki Gallery
Address: 106-0046
Motoazabu Crest Building B1F, 2-3-30 Motoazabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Opening Reception: February 28 (Fri), 18:00 – 20:00
