Artist-designer Yukiko Nagai was born in Niigata, Japan, in 1981. She studied environmental landscape design at Tama Art University, graduating with her Bachelor’s degree in 2004. She went on to study mosaic techniques in Italy at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Ravenna, graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in 2009. That same year, Yukiko Nagai returned to Tokyo, and began experimenting with mosaics. She established her own international studio in 2011, and began working as a mosaic designer in both Tokyo and Ravenna, Italy. The concept of works of Yukiko Nagai consists in the interpretation of various materials using exclusively marble and rocks, trying to surprise at the touch and look of the surface rendered in the piece.