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Roger Shimomura
In residence: 2012-13
About the Artist
Roger Shimomura’s paintings, prints, and theatre pieces address sociopolitical issues of ethnicity. He was born in Seattle, Washington and spent two years of his early childhood in Minidoka (Idaho), one of ten concentration camps for Japanese Americans during World War II.
Shimomura received a B.A. degree from the University of Washington, Seattle, and an M.F.A. from Syracuse University, New York. He has had over 135 solo exhibitions of paintings and prints, and has presented his experimental theatre pieces at such venues as the Franklin Furnace, New York City, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, and The Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. He is the recipient of more than 30 grants, of which four are National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships in Painting and Performance Art. Shimomura has been a visiting artist and lecturer on his work at more than 200 universities, art schools, and museums across the country. He is the recipient of awards from the College Art Association, Seattle Urban League, Kansas Governor’s Office, Asian American Ats Alliance, University of Washington and, in 2011, was designated a United States Artist Fellow.
Shimomura began teaching at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas in 1969. In the fall of 1990, Shimomura held an appointment as the Dayton Hudson Distinguished Visiting Professor at Carleton College, Northfield,Minnesota. During his teaching career at the University of Kansas he was the fist faculty member in the School of Fine Arts ever to be designated a University Distinguished Professor (1994). He also received the Higuchi Research Prize (1998) and the Chancellors Club Career Teaching Award (2002). In 2004 he retired from teaching and started the Shimomura Faculty Research Support Fund, an endowment to foster faculty research in the Department of Art.
Shimomura is in the permanent collections of over 85 museums nationwide. His personal papers and letters are being collected by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. He is represented by the Flomenhaft Gallery, New York City, Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle, Eight Modern Gallery, Santa Fe, and Byron C. Cohen Gallery, Kansas City.
Artist’s Statement
I was born in Seattle, Washington and have been living in Lawrence, Kansas since 1969, retiring in 2004 as Distinguished Professor of Art Emeritus. My wife, the artist Janet Davidson-Hues, and I built and live in a 5,000 square foot house/studio in Lawrence, and we also maintain residences in Seattle and New York City.
I am honored to be selected Artist-in-Residence for the A/P/A Institute for the 2012-2013 academic year. As a full-time artist and former artist-educator, I look forward to sharing my experiences with the larger community of A/PA supporters. Equally challenging will be the special opportunity to inaugurate the exhibition space in the A/P/A Institute’s new permanent home on the Washington Mews. For this occasion I am planning a mini-retrospective exhibition of my screen prints and lithographs with a special twist that I hope will enrich the understanding of the works on display. As a lifelong collector of Americana, it was inevitable that the images of many of these objects would work their way into my paintings, prints, and performances. I will start by selecting sample prints from the various themes that I have worked on since the late 1960s. Alongside each print, I will situate a two- or three-dimensional object(s) that was inspirational or related to the genesis of the print concept. Hopefully this arrangement will encourage opportunities for some fresh and interesting dialogue on popular culture and its interaction with the fine arts.
I look forward to the events this year and the opportunities to share some experiences gained from a long career in the studio and classroom.
Roger Shimomura, Artist-in-Residence
