Fujiko Nakaya

Born in Sapporo in 1933, the second daughter of Ukichiro Nakaya, Fujiko Nakaya is an internationally renowned sculpture artist based in Tokyo, Japan. In 1966, she joined Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), an experimental group formed in New York City with the goal of fostering collaboration between art and science. In 1970, at the Pepsi Pavilion at Expo ’70 in Osaka, Nakaya presented her first Fog Sculpture using artificial potable water fog. Since then, she has created environmental sculptures, park installations, performances, and other works using fog worldwide. She has collaborated extensively with artists from fields including architecture, music, dance, and lighting design. Since the 1970s, she has produced video art, and in 1980 she founded Video Gallery SCAN in Harajuku, Japan’s first gallery dedicated to the medium. She is a graduate of Northwestern University in the United States.

Nakaya is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the Australian Cultural Award (1976), the Special Prize of the Isoya Yoshida Award (1993), the Merit Award at the Japan Media Arts Festival (2008), The 8th Enku Grand Award Exhibition (2016), the title of Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters, France (2017), the Praemium Imperiale(2018), the Commissioner for Cultural Affairs Award (2020), the Person of Cultural Merit (2022), and the Order of the Rising Sun (Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon) (2024). She has been a member of the Japan Art Academy since 2023.

Her major works include Opal Loop / Cloud Installation (Collaboration with Trisha Brown Dance Company, New York City, 1980), Foggy Wake in a Desert: An Ecosphere (National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1983), Skyline (Parc de la Villette, Paris, 1989), Foggy Forest (Showa Kinen Park, Tokyo, 1992), Greenland Glacial Moraine Garden (Nakaya Ukichiro Museum of Snow and Ice, Kaga, 1994), F.O.G. (Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, 1999), Veil (Philip Johnson’s Glass House, New Canaan, 2014), London Fog (Tate Modern, London, 2017), Dynamic Earth Series I (Nagano Prefectural Art Museum, 2021), and Khao Yai Fog Forest (Khao Yai Art Forest, 2025).