Duke was Kojima’s most precious model and natural inspiration over 14 years that he was alive. She drew his paws when she was researching her Cloud Leopard. She looked at the sky reflected in his big eyes when they went to the park together and he usually sat in her lap while she cut. The Duke Collection is a rich emotional journey and celebration of his life.
Sumi was a stunning piece revealed at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London. The piece, a life sized crocodile made from a single sheet and installed as a sculpture, floated proudly in a Museum that houses a Rembrandt in the adjacent room.
Nahoko Kojima’s largest Paper Cut Sculpture to date, a handmade life-sized Blue Whale called Shiro (meaning ‘White’ in Japanese) was made from a very large sheet of custom made Japanese Washi paper near 150 square metres in size. The result was a sculpture swimming out of the ground in a 32 metre hall at the BACC Bangkok. The sculpture itself was 23 metres in length, continuing Kojima’s process of creating works that are true to scale. Using the sculptures as a canvas on which to cut her intricate stories and experiences the Artist conveys her unique way of looking at the World which has brought much joy to art lovers around the globe.
The Human Collection came about from Kojima’s passion and background in fashion. She is fascinated by defining the worn garment from a basis founded in single sheets of cut paper and how that results in a completely new aesthetic.
A collection of films featuring the Japanese Paper Cut Artist, Nahoko Kojima, a pioneer of contemporary Kirie as sculpture.
Bulgari invited Nahoko Kojima to reinvent bridal art displayed in over 100 displays in stores across the entire Asia region. The result was a year long masterclass in how art should work with brands and in the context of paper, there have been numerous campaigns and trends created that can be attributed to having been inspired by this one campaign.
Nahoko Kojima was voted among the top 5 out of thousands of artists from around the globe in ArtPrize 2014 in Michigan, Grand Rapids. In this one show at the Ford Museum her work was experienced first hand by over 300,000 visitors over only a few weeks, with also an appearance on local television by the Artist, discussing her art.
The Cloud Leopard was commissioned by the Crafts Council UK because the artist, relatively unknown in the UK at the time, wanted to experiment with a new form of paper sculpture created using only a single sheet of paper, introducing Japanese Kirie to the awe and delight of visitors at the Saatchi Gallery in London. This piece is considered to be a pioneering work, for the first time in the World using the rules of the artform of Kirie as a basis for creating an entirely new contemporary art genre of Paper Cut Sculpture.
