Noriko Kurafuji Japanese contemporary flower painter
• 1972: Born in Tokyo, Japan
• 1994: Graduated from Joshibi University of Art and Design -Best Graduation Work Award-
• 1996: Graduated from Graduate School of Joshibi University of Art and Design
 
"I studied oil painting, print, Japanese traditional painting and also art preservation science. I initially intend to digest, from my point of view, various figures, colors and sounds which are perceived in the everyday life, and then try to express them as the space with clear warmth and the moment, on my pictures.
 
After completing the master course, I had worked at the Institute of Medical Science, and researched the various samples of cells and looked at the delicate micro world which is impossible for us to see with naked eyes. I think that those experiences continued having a great influence on my works. I am daily devoting myself to painting at my atelier and regularly lecturing about art.
 
I often title my painting ‘Nagare’ which is a Japanese word equivalent to ‘flow’. It means a variety of flows and represents a lot of conceptions including, for example, a flow of flower, a flow of river, a flow of the cloud, a flow of time, a flow of sound.
 
‘Nagare’ contains “a high context” and consequently my paintings will give viewers their own impression/imagination of vast scope. Someone would say it gives the conception of flowers and others would image love or the sky in it. It is because the subject of my work may be a flower and, at the same time, love or the sky."
 
Noriko KURAFUJI