Masako Kamiya continues to make paintings that bristle off the surface, and – as her show at Gallery NAGA indicates – her color sense is getting both more refined and more daring. The artist creates dots in colored gouache on panel and slowly builds upon each, dot by dot, creating stalks up to a quarter-inch tall. The texture is at once alluring and creepy.

In the past, Kamiya has made canvases that looked like three-dimensional sprays of confetti. Here, each piece has a tone. “Façade of the Winter” is at first glance white, but a pale green seems to hover over the surface. Look close, and you’ll see dabs of green, yellow, and blue. “Maroon Hours” is a retinal knockout - nubs of yellow, orange, fuchsia, and purple generate a maroon so stoked it pops off the wall. All the pieces push you back and draw you in.

...The paintings do surprise. Their texture, rough and bristling with tiny stalagmites, is rugged but enticing. The play of color over the surface, with so many layers exposed in each nub, feels infinite.

Masako Kamiya builds up her paintings dot by dot, making little stalks of colored gouache that bristle over her surface like growing mold. Yet, in their bright tones, their precision, and the sheer exuberance of their seeming growth, there’s a joy to her work.

...Kamiya has her own show at Gallery NAGA, and she merits the buzz. Call her a pointillist with depth. Working with acrylic gouache and a tiny brush, Kamiya paints small dots on her canvases. Painstakingly, she builds up each dot using different colors, creating thousands of miniature, multi-toned stalks in each painting. They hover like reeds over spare underdrawings, which map out simple circular patterns.

...The obsessive, intricate technique creates luminous fields of color that change depending on where you stand, and paintings that are truly three-dimensional.

...The tones and textures alone make her work eye candy, but it’s made with such painterly sophistication and precise technique, it’s no wonder she’s attracting attention. You don’t have to know anything about art to like these paintings, but it you know just a little, they’ll knock your socks off.