1999 Autumn, my painting days in Dublin started at the Fire Station Artist’s Studios. I never had such a beautiful time working in my life. I really appreciated the great environment, space, the very warm staff and all the great artists there.

I begin with simple, repetitive geometric shapes, circles, or grids which gradually disappear as I build up each layer of paint. Then I reverse the process, slowly sanding away the paint surface to try and find the starting shapes, on the way creating a new surface made up of scratches and traces of colour from every layer of the work. In this process I find a way to see through time, revisiting memories hidden in the work and from their simple, minimalist beginning each painting takes on a more organic and expressive character.

The fourteen years in Dublin were immensely important in my development as a painter. I greatly appreciate that the Irish Museum of Modern Art has added my painting to their collection, and I had two major commissions from the Gate Theatre.

Since I returned to Kyoto, I have continued to follow the same, highly disciplined routine, happily painting all day, every day. I left for Paris under the influence of the works of Samuel Beckett at the age of 44; it may have been too late to begin working abroad.

However, after completing an art residency in Philadelphia, I decided to come to Dublin, returning to my long-held fascination with Beckett’s world.

Having not lived in Japan for quite a long time, it is now another abroad. However the moon I look at here in Kyoto shows me the same warmth as the Dublin moon gave me.

Irish people are the kindest people in the world, a friend once told me.

Oh, dream makers, you heart breakers. Beautiful and absurd walkers on the Liffey Bridges.

– Makiko Nakamura, April 2026

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 In Dublin (2026), Lover (2024), Wings, Moons and Love Songs (2022), 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.