Category : Residents' news
Resident Profile - Miyouki Nakajima
A textile artist, Miyouki Nakajima has developed a practice rooted in floral adornment, a field within the arts and crafts. Through her work, she explores the contemporary relevance and artistic potential of this craft, while examining its very nature: what is similar, what is different, and the beauty that emerges from it.
Born into a family with ties to architecture and fashion, Miyouki grew up in a small town on the outskirts of Tokyo. From childhood, she became familiar with materials and working with her hands. The time she spent in a small forest, experiencing the subtle changes of the Japanese seasons, as well as learning drawing and sculpture from her grandfather, an architect, nurtured her sensibility and laid the foundation for her current artistic language.
As a teenager, she discovered floral embellishment through Yves Saint Laurent’s haute couture collections. She was fascinated by the transformation of flat silk into flowers and by the artisanal craftsmanship involved. She spent nearly ten years teaching herself to master these techniques.
After gaining experience as an artistic director for a jewelry house, she founded her studio in Tokyo in 2013, where she creates floral accessories for fashion, theater, and weddings.
After settling in France in 2017, she became aware of the gradual decline of this craft. This realization marked a turning point: she embarked on an artistic exploration aimed at offering a contemporary interpretation of the craft, developing a more sculptural style that combines silk with other materials— washi paper, fibers, plaster, metal, and wood—as well as subtle hues inspired by Japanese painting and derived from natural pigments.
Her time at Galerie SINOPLE, which represented her for five years, enriched and deepened this exploration through artistic dialogue, while opening her work to new fields—notably set design and interior design—and leading to collaborations with several French luxury brands.
Since joining the Ateliers de Paris, she has pursued an approach aimed at bringing her artistic practice closer to everyday life. While continuing her work in the fields of fashion and art, she is dedicated to expanding this exploration, focusing in particular on the effects of light and shadow, contemporary environmental issues, and collaborations with practitioners of traditional Japanese crafts.
Its news
Exhibition from April 15 to 25 at the Une Fille Aux Cheveux Noirs gallery. Exploring a dialogue with materials and variations in perception, she presents three-dimensional and wall-mounted textile works, as well as three light installations created in collaboration with Wilfried Becret (craftsman-designer) and Wilfried Rouissi (marble craftsman-designer)
