Fujiko Nakaya facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Fujiko Nakaya
Nakaya's Fog Sculpture #08025 "F.O.G.," Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain
Born	15 May 1933 Sapporo, Japan
Nationality	Japanese

Fujiko Nakaya (中谷 芙二子, Nakaya Fujiko, born 15 May 1933) is a famous Japanese artist. She is known for her amazing fog sculptures. She was also part of a group called Experiments in Art and Technology and helped spread video art in Japan.

Early Life and Education

Fujiko Nakaya was born in Sapporo, Japan, in 1933. Her father, Ukichiro Nakaya, was a scientist who made the first artificial snowflakes. He also made documentary films and was a talented artist. His scientific ideas and art greatly influenced Fujiko's work.

Fujiko went to high school in Tokyo. Then, she moved to the United States to study at Northwestern University in Illinois. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1957. After that, she studied painting in Paris and Madrid until 1959.

Artistic Journey and Career

After studying in Europe, Nakaya returned to Japan in 1960. She showed her oil paintings in Chicago with her father. Her first solo art show was in Tokyo in 1962.

Joining Experiments in Art and Technology

Nakaya became well-known through her work with an American art group called Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.). This group started in 1967. She first worked with E.A.T. in 1966, helping with a performance. She officially joined in 1969 as their representative in Tokyo.

She was asked to create a fog sculpture for the Pepsi Pavilion at Expo '70 in Osaka, Japan. Instead of using chemicals, Nakaya wanted to make a fog from water. She worked with an engineer named Thomas Mee to create the world's first water-based fog sculpture. They studied how wind and nature would affect the fog. This made nature a "collaborator" in her art. The fog sculpture became a highlight of the Pepsi Pavilion.

After Expo '70, Nakaya continued with E.A.T. by starting a branch in Tokyo. They worked on a project called Utopia Q&A, 1981. This project connected terminals in Tokyo, New York, Stockholm, and Ahmedabad using telex machines. People exchanged messages about what the world might be like in 1981. Many famous Japanese artists and scientists joined in from Tokyo.

Pioneering Video Art in Japan

Since the 1970s, Nakaya has been very important in the video art scene in Japan. She helped connect artists in North America and Japan. She worked with Yamaguchi Katsuhiro to organize Japan's first video art exhibition in 1972.

She was a key member of a group called Video Hiroba. This group created community art projects and individual video artworks. Some of her notable video works include Friends of Minamata Victims—Video Diary (1972) and Old People's Wisdom — Cultural DNA (1973). Besides making art, she also translated books and articles about video art into Japanese. She helped organize exhibitions of Japanese video art abroad.

In 1980, Nakaya opened Japan's first video art gallery in Harajuku. It was called Video Gallery SCAN. The gallery held competitions for new artists and featured solo shows. Famous artists like Bill Viola and Nam June Paik showed their work there. The gallery also organized the Japan International Video Television Festival in Tokyo several times.

Creating Fog Sculptures

Nakaya's fog works have been her main focus since Video Gallery SCAN closed in 1992. She explained that she doesn't directly create images with her fog. Instead, the fog reacts to the weather and surroundings. It helps people see nature's stories and information more clearly.

Art critic Kenjiro Okazaki has written a lot about Nakaya's fog art. He connects it to her father's scientific work. Her father used photos and films to study snow and weather. Similarly, Fujiko Nakaya is interested in how things change and happen naturally, rather than creating perfect, finished objects.

Nakaya often works with other artists on her fog sculptures. These include video artist Bill Viola, light artist Shiro Takatani, and dancers Trisha Brown and Min Tanaka. In 1992, she helped create a playground in Showa Kinen Park in Tokyo where dense fog appears twice an hour. Visitors feel lost and then found again as the fog comes and goes. This art piece reminds us about nature and the cycle of life. In 2002, she advised architects on the "Blur Building" for the Swiss Expo.

Nakaya has received many awards for her art. In 2018, she won the Praemium Imperiale award in sculpture, which is a very important art prize. Her first big art show looking back at all her work was held in Japan in 2018.

Fog Sculpture #94925 "Foggy Wake in a Desert: An Ecosphere," Sculpture Garden, Australian National Gallery, Canberra

Notable Artworks

• 1970: Fog Sculpture "PEPSI PAVILION," Expo '70, Osaka
• 1972: Friends of Minamata Victims—Video Diary
• 1973: Old People's Wisdom—Cultural DNA, installation at Computer Art '73, Sony Building, Ginza, Tokyo
• 1974: Standing an Egg, interactive video installation, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Tokyo
• 1974: Fog Environment for David Tudor Concert "ISLAND EYE ISLAND EAR" (Collaboration with David Tudor, Jacqueline Monnier), Knavelskar Island, Sweden
• 1976: Fog Sculpture #94768: Earth Talk, The 2nd Biennale of Sydney
• 1980: Opal Loop/Cloud Installation #72503, for Trisha Brown Dance Company, New York
• 1980: Cloud Lake, The 11th International Sculpture Conference
• 1980: Fog Sculpture: Kawaji, Festival of Light, Sound and Fog, Tochigi (collaboration with Bill Viola)
• 1981: Waterfall: An Integrated River, video installation at The Miyagi Museum of Art, Miyagi
• 1983: Fog Sculpture #94925: Foggy Wake in a Desert: An Ecosphere, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (permanent)
• 1983: Meltee-vee, video installation at Museum of Modern Art, Toyoma
• 1988: Fog Sculpture: Skyline, Jardin de l'eau, Parc de la Villette, Paris
• 1990-1: Four Wells, video installation, National Art Center, Tokyo
• 1992: Foggy Forest, Children's Park, Showa Memorial Park, Tachikawa (Tokyo)
• 1994: "Greenland Glacial Moraine Garden", Ukichiro Nakaya Museum of Snow and Ice, Kaga
• 1998: Fog Sculpture #08025: F.O.G., Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain (Permanent Collection)
• 2001: IRIS, Fog Sculpture in collaboration with Shiro Takatani in Valencia Harbour, The 1st Valencia Biennial, Spain
• 2004: Fog Sculpture #28634: "Dialogue", Technology for Living: Experiments in Art and Technology, Norrköpings konstmuseum, Norrköping
• 2005: Fog Chamber-Riga #26422, for Conversations with Snow and Ice, The Natural History Museum of Latvia, Riga
• 2010: Cloud Forest, fog installation, light and sound in collaboration with Shiro Takatani, commissioned by the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM]
• 2011: fog installation in collaboration with Shiro Takatani, Ishibutai Tumulus, Asuka Historical Park, Nara
• 2011: Fog Garden #07172 - Moss Garden Nicey-sur-Aire, Vent des forêts, Arrondissement de Commercy
• 2013: Fog Bridge #72494, Exploratorium, San Francisco
• 2014: Veil, The Glass House, New Canaan, Connecticut
• 2015: "Fog Bridge", fog installation and exhibition at the Arnolfini Centre of Contemporary Arts, commissioned for IBT15 Bristol International Festival], England
• 2017: Pathfinder #18700 Oslo, Ekebergparken, Oslo, Norway
• 2018: "Fog x FLO" includes five site-responsive installations along Fredrick Law Olmsted's Emerald Necklace
• 2022: "Munich Fog (Wave), #10865/I" and "Munich Fog (Fogfall) #10865/II" at Haus der Kunst in Munich, Germany.

Awards and Recognition

• 1976: Australian Cultural Award for Fog Sculpture #94768 "Earth Talk"
• 1983: Finalist, The First International Water Sculpture Competition
• 1990: Laser d'Or, Locarno Video Festival
• 1992: Minister of Construction Award for "Foggy Forest"
• 1993: Yoshida Isoya Special Award for "Foggy Forest"
• 2001: Minister of Communication Award for artistic contribution to HDTV Programming
• 2008: Media Arts Festival, Special Achievement Prize for her contributions to Media Arts
• 2017: Commandeur, Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France
• 2018: Praemium Imperiale Award in Sculpture, Japan Art Association
• 2023: Wolf Prize in Arts

Other Achievements

• From 1979 to 1998, she taught at Nihon University in the Department of Cinema.
• In 1989, she received a patent for her "System/apparatus for making a cloud sculpture from water-fog."
• The author Dan Brown mentioned Nakaya's fog sculpture in his novel Origin (Brown novel). His character visits the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and sees her changing fog sculpture.

See also

In Spanish: Fujiko Nakaya para niños