Nahoko Kojima: life and works

Nahoko Kojima (小島 奈保子, Kojima Nahoko) (born October 2, 1981) is a contemporary Japanese paper cut artist. She started Kirie (Japanese Papercutting) under private tutelage at the age of 5 and continued throughout her formative years. In 1999 she moved to Tokyo and in 2004 she graduated from a degree in Design at Kuwasawa Institute. An avaricious follower of fashion and trends, she found much of her inspiration in the city. She briefly pursued a career in Graphic Design in Tokyo before disturbing to London in 2005 to learn more of the Western culture of the Arts. Her first solo Paper Cut proceed in London exhibited the 5 senses amassing at the Epicurean Lounge in 2007.

By 2009 she was bitter professionally, filling the Exposure Gallery in Central London with over 100 paper cuts some from her get older in Tokyo in the express of the majority clip in London. In 2010, Kojima opened her studio in Central London and started working upon multiple works including the Majestic Birds, Kiku Flowers Collection, the full colour Alice Collection, based on the record by Lewis Carroll and numerous commissions, selling works mostly to private collectors and members of the public attending her Open Studio events. In 2011 she co-founded Solo & Kojima in Clerkenwell, a company specialising in Paper Cut Art and Design consultation.

In 2012, Kojima was wealthy in being prearranged by the Craft Council for Collect, at the Saatchi Gallery in London. The piece unveiled at the undertaking was a new experiment which saying Paper Cuts brute treated as sculpture, challenging established views. Kojima is known to Make one-off designs that are never duplicated and often based upon the forces of nature. For Collect she showed just one piece, the life-sized Cloud Leopard, one hand-cut sheet of black paper, suspended from the ceiling in a tone that created a sculptural representation of the animal intertwined once narrative and hidden characters. It took five months to complete and the fragment was very flourishing because of Kojima’s pioneering technique, turning traditionally flat wall hung pieces into sculptures free in exhibition halls. The Cloud Leopard toured in Europe in partnership later the Italian cultural organisation Arte&Arte, showing at Villa Olmo in Como Italy, Le Beffroi in Paris and was part of 2013 Clerkenwell Design Week in London. Regarding her process Kojima is quoted as having said:

“When I was a child I would lie down on my back upon the grass and appeal the underside of flowers. I think like we discover a hidden beauty, we leave our bodies and look upon ourselves, the aspiration and environment, all as one Beautiful epiphany.”

In 2013, Kojima was awarded the Jerwood Makers Open commission for which she proposed her adjacent major paper clip sculpture. This piece was unveiled in the thesame year, taking seven months to make and was called Byaku (meaning ‘white’ in Japanese), a handmade life-sized Polar Bear cut using only one 3m x 3m sheet of white Japanese washi paper. In 2014, Kojima unveiled Washi, a life-sized Bald Eagle made from a single sheet of paper in her debut American bill at the Gerald Ford Presidential Library in Grand Rapids MI, USA. The player was nominated in the course of the summit five in her category for ArtPrize2014 by a public vote.

Immediately after her US debut Nahoko Kojima was invited to sports ground to redesign bridal displays in hundreds of shop windows in more than 90 stores across the Asia region for the luxury brand BVLGARI. She won the conformity and clip a 16 metre long fragment by hand for the flagship Bulgari addition in Ginza, Tokyo. The put it on featuring doves holding Bulgari’s interlocking heart motif was inspired by her time in Rome later she wise saying thousands of birds on high across the sky, as explained in the immediate film very nearly her ham it up for the brand, commissioned by BVLGARI. The paper cut Doves and Hearts demonstrate was rolled out in Bulgari stores across Asia during 2015 by Solo Kojima, with key venues installed personally by the performer in Tokyo, Osaka, London, Taipei, Shanghai, Beijing, Seoul and Singapore.

In Fall 2015 Nahoko Kojima did a solo do something in the Wirth Gallery in The Holburne Museum, Bath UK, which coincided later than an exhibition on Gold from the Queen’s Royal Collection. She revealed her latest sculpture, Honey (2015), a single sheet of Gold Japanese Washi paper cut suspended in a spiral pretend to have creating a beehive like honeycomb patterns and detail of the flight of bees. Workshops and talks by the artiste were sold out and Kojima received compliment from critics and the media.

In June 2016, Nahoko Kojima won the coveted Kuwasawa Award which she in style at a ceremony in Tokyo. The Award is firm for those Japanese artists and designers who have made a considerable contribution in their agreed disciplines. The trophy was intended by the master Japanese Sculptor, Churyo Sato (佐藤忠良).