Makiko Nakamura was born in Japan in 1951 and has been based between Dublin and her native Kyoto since 1999. She studied at the Nagoya Art School, Japan before moving to France to study printmaking at the Atelier Conre Point in Paris.
Taking the grid as her starting point, Nakamura's idiosyncratic paintings are remarkable for their intense depth of colour and incredibly fine finish. Although resolutely abstract, the titles of her work refer to people, places and objects she encounters in her daily life. She recently began making works on handmade paper using Japanese pigments and metal leaf that embrace a looser geometry. Pearlescent pastels dominate, with echoes of intense colour gimpsed through the paintings' surface.
A month-long residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in the summer of 2019 saw her introduce representational elements (fish, horses, mountains) through a series of brightly-coloured drawings in watercolour and acrylic.
Makiko Nakamura has exhibited her work extensively in group and solo exhibitions in Ireland, Britain, the USA, Japan and France. Shows at Taylor Galleries include Love Songs (2019), Dublin Moon (2017), Journeys (2015), and Passage (2011).
In 2010 she completed a commission for the Gate Theatre in Dublin as part of the PerCent for Art Scheme and was awarded a Research Fellowship by the Government of Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs.
She completed a residency at Fire Station Artists' Studios from 1999 to 2002 and was a member of TBG+S from 2003 to 2006. Her work is represented in private collections in Eurpoe, the USA and Japan as well as the public collections of IMMA, the Gate Theatre, Wexford Opera House, the OPW / State Art Collection, National Self-Portrait Collection, Limerick City Art Gallery and Boyle Civic Collection.