Keiko Fukazawa
Keiko Fukazawa was born in Japan and educated at the Musashino Art University in Tokyo. Fukazawa also studied at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles where she taught ceramics for four years. She currently lives and has her studio in Pasadena, California, and is an associate professor and head of the ceramic department at Pasadena City College.
Fukazawa's mother introduced her to art and encouraged her to pursue painting as a career. However, the young artist was discouraged by the cultural conservatism that made it particularly difficult for women painters. She turned to her mother, who was an excellent and creative cook. As the two women discussed the relationship between food and the vessels it is stored, prepared, and served in, Fukazawa's interest slowly moved to ceramics. While working as an apprentice at the ceramic studio in Shigaraki, she was again dismayed by the rigidly gendered practices. Intrigued by the California Clay Movement led by artists like Peter Voulkos, Fukazawa decided to come to California 1984. Today, her work reflects a California outlook that includes diverse cultural hybrids and an “anything goes” attitude. She has worked for over 30 years as a bicultural artist with an eye of an outsider. Fukazawa's recent residencies in China have given her new perspectives and innovative platforms with which to experiment with conceptual art.
Keiko Fukazawa’s work has been widely exhibited. US gallery exhibitions include six one- person shows at Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles and New York, and numerous group shows at Dorothy Weiss Gallery, San Francisco and Nancy Margolis Gallery, New York and Portland. Museum exhibitions of Fukazawa’s work include Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; American Craft Museum, New York; and the Arlington Museum of Art, Arlington, TX. Her work is in permanent collections of National Museum of History, Taipei, Taiwan; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; and Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI. In 2005 Fukazawa received grant from the Peter S. Reed Foundation, Inc. New York as well as grants from the California Arts Council, the City of Pasadena Arts Commission, the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs. Fukazawa is also the recipient of the 2015 Artist in Residency Grant from the Asian Cultural Council in New York City and a 2016 COLA Individual Artist’s Fellowship from the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles. She has also had exhibitions in countries as diverse as Colombia, Canada, Taiwan, and Italy. -The Artful Teapot: 20th Century Expressions from the Kamm Collection, The George R. Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto, CANADA (2003), -From the Earth/Dalla Terra, Palazzo dei Consoli, Gubbio, Perugia/ITALY (1999), -Heartists in the Marketplace, Centro Colombo Americano, Medellin COLOMBIA (1998), - International Invitational Ceramic Competition Exhibition, National Museum of History, Taipei, Taiwan (1992).
Her work has been featured in the following publications; Sex Pot: Eroticism in Ceramics by Paul Mathieu, Contemporary Ceramics by Susan Peterson, Color and Fire – Defining Moments in Studio Ceramics 1950 – 2000, Rizzoli, I. P. I. by Jo Lauria, The Artful Teapot by Garth Clark, Postmodern Ceramics by Mark Del Vecchio and numerous magazines and papers including: Ceramic Monthly, Ceramic Arts and Perception, American Ceramics, art ltd, Huffington Post, and Los Angeles Times. Most recently, An Outsider Sends Message by Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times. Her newest works have been exhibited at the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles, El Camino College Art Gallery in Torrance, and The Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery in 2016.
