Katsu Nakajima

Katsu Nakajima (born February 15, 1954) is a Japanese realist painter known for figurative works incorporating gold leaf backgrounds and closely observed landscapes. He began painting seriously after the age of 50. In 2019, he was designated an ARC Living Master by the Art Renewal Center (ARC), a non-profit arts organization based in the United States.

Early life and education Katsu Nakajima was born in 1954 in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. During his childhood, he grew up in the fields and wooded areas surrounding the Nintoku-Tenno Tomb(now known as the Daisen Kofun ), which served as his everyday playground, spending his formative years in close contact with the natural environment. The Daisen Kofun is the largest keyhole-shaped kofun burial mound in Japan and is regarded as one of the largest burial mounds in the world.

An avid reader of Jean-Henri Fabre's Souvenirs entomologiques (Insectes), Nakajima developed a strong interest in insects from an early age. Through sustained engagement with the natural environment, he cultivated a keen observational sensibility. He has stated that such long-term interaction with nature and attentive observation led him to sense the existence of forces beyond human understanding, which later influenced his approach to painting and visual expression. He remained active in the advertising industry for nearly three decades.

During his years working as an art director, Nakajima developed a deep interest in fly fishing and spent extensive time engaging with natural environments, including fishing trips to North America. Through these experiences, he cultivated a growing interest in entomology and contributed essays to specialized fly fishing magazines. Nakajima has stated that his sustained engagement with nature, accompanied by close and attentive observation, fostered an awareness of forces beyond human control—a sensibility that later informed his approach to painting. He subsequently began working in oil painting. Reflecting on this transition, he has stated that handling oil paint felt entirely natural, as if oil painting had long been familiar to him.

During the 2010s, his work gained international recognition through the International ARC Salon Competition. The award is named after the 19th-century French academic painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau and is presented for excellence in figurative painting. In his capacity as chairman of the Art Renewal Center, Fred Ross praised Nakajima's work Woman in the Forest. In 2019, Nakajima became the first Japanese artist to be recognized as an ARC Living Master.

Working primarily on canvas, he combines meticulous realism with the reflective and irregular surface of gold leaf, creating compositions in which conventional pictorial space is subtly disrupted.

In his figurative works, Nakajima frequently depicts female figures, rendered with a high degree of realism, emphasizing presence, surface texture, bodily detail, and the material qualities of kimono.

These figures are often set against gold-leaf surfaces that suggest spaces removed from everyday reality. While the compositions may evoke a sense of narrative or psychological depth, they are not confined to a single storyline or symbolic reading, allowing multiple interpretations to coexist.

Across both figurative and landscape works, recurring motifs such as deep forests, dense wooded spaces, mirrors, and living creatures appear without fixed narrative hierarchy. These elements often emerge in seemingly fragmentary or non-linear combinations, suggesting spaces that are neither strictly symbolic nor purely representational.

Such imagery has been noted as resonant with perspectives rooted in East Asian conceptions of nature, where human presence is not privileged over the surrounding environment. Rather than depicting nature as scenery, Nakajima's paintings evoke an animistic sensibility in which natural elements possess agency, presence, and continuity extending beyond human perception. Incarnation (2013) Bouquet to Tomorrow (2016) Jukai (2017) Woman in the Forest (2017) MONONOKE Forest (Shirakoma Pond) (2020)

Recent works Looking Glass World – Pandemic (2020) Emerger (2022) Red Comb (2022) Red String (2023) 17th/18th International ARC Salon Exhibition, Sotheby's, New York (July 17–27, 2026).

Awards and Honors Design awards

Silver Medal, 11th Brno International Biennale of Graphic Design, Brno, Czechoslovakia (1986) Sheng Xinyu Art Award, 17th International ARC Salon Competition (2025)

Painting awards (Japan)

Special Prize, Reorganized 1st Nitten (Japan Fine Arts Exhibition) (2014) Prime Minister's Award, 92nd Hakujitsukai Exhibition (2016)

Other international roles

Cover selection, Artelibre Arte y Libertad XIII Yearbook (Spain) (2018) Selected artist, Mimesis Exhibition, IAACC Pablo Serrano Museum (Zaragoza) – MEAM, Barcelona (2023)

Publications

Realism with Gold (art book, 2023). Paleta Publishing / Ikeda Museum of 20th Century Art. ISBN 978-4-9912878-0-0.