Makiko Nakamura

Makiko Nakamura was born in 1951 in Japan. Raised by her grandparents, she was introduced to traditional Japanese painting and calligraphy when a child. She studied at the Nagoya Art School, Japan, and initially began a career working in film before devoting her time to fine art. She moved to France to study printmaking at the Atelier Conre Point, Paris, and following this completed a residency at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. In 1999 she moved to Dublin and has since been based between Dublin and Kyoto. Nakamura’s paintings are abstract, large-scale canvases, composed of layered pigment painted over geometric grids. Thin layers of paint are applied and then erased with sandpaper – a process repeated often, over the course of several months – to create a glossy, flat surface with a metallic effect. The finished works bear traces of each layer of paint, creating the illusion of depth.