Majima Naoko

Majima Naoko was born in 1944 in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. She attended the Univeristy of Art in Tokyo and studied in the Oil Painting department in 1968. Majima was fifteen when in 1959 the Vera typhoon laid waste to her region and parts of the country, resulting in over 6000 casualties. She has said that this disaster hugely influenced her later work in which she explores the themes of survival and death through large installations. Her installations use a wide variety of materials such as cotton, cardboard, glue, and wire, some of which even incorporating found items like plastic bags and feathers. She has exhibited in group shows since 1987 in Japan, Bangladesh, Paris and Korea. She held her first solo exhibition in 1982 at the Institute of France-Japan in Tokyo and later exhibited at Chukyo University's Gallery (1997), the IBM Gallery in Tokyo (2004), the Gallery M Contemporary (2008) and the Mizuma Gallery in Tokyo (2005, 2007, 2010).