[7] As a teenager, she was inspired to begin drawing on her prosthetics[8] after modeling in a show for fashion designer Tatsuya Shimada, who discovered her through her blog.
[2] Shimada said that he was looking for a unique model, and he saw Katayama as a "real girl who loves fashion" and thought there was potential for drawing on her prosthetics.
[10] Katayama graduated with a B.A from the Department of Aesthetics and Art History, Faculty of Literature at Gunma Prefectural Women's University in 2010.
The dolls and prosthetic legs that appear repeatedly in my work can be an attempt to objectify my own elusive body through the acts of measuring, disassembling, and re-joining.
In 2019, she had her first UK solo show (titled Broken Heart) at White Rainbow, a gallery in London that focuses on contemporary Japanese artists.
[16] From October 2019 to January 2020, Katayama displayed her photography, as well as a textile piece made of twine, pillows, pantyhose, seashells, and her own hair,[17][18] at the University of Michigan Museum of Art.
[20] Katayama's work has been shown in multiple group exhibitions, starting with the Gunma Biennale for Young Artists in 2005 when she was 18 years old.
[21] In 2016, photographs from you're mine were included in Roppongi Crossing 2016: My Body, Your Voice (僕の身体、あなたの声, Boku no shintai, anata no koe) at Mori Art Museum in Tokyo.
[6] Katayama's work is held in the following permanent collection: A review on Artsy by Alina Cohen commended her repurposing of traditional craft objects, and cinematic, glamorous imagery.