Yuko Kimura- Printmaker and Paper Artist
Yuko Kimura was born in Oakland, California to Japanese parents and raised in Tokyo.
She has lived in the U.S. since 1989.
She received her MFA from the University of Michigan School of Art and Design in 1997, and her BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1994. She has received several awards including the First Agnes Gund Traveling Award from the Cleveland Institute of Art, and the Horace H. Rackham Merit Fellowship from the University of Michigan. In 2004, she was selected for the Nesnadny and Schwartz Visiting Critics Program at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally.
From April 2021 through 2024, Yuko’s work will be part of the touring museum exhibition, Washi Transformed: New Expressions in Japanese Paper curated by Meher McArthur. Her work is in the collection at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Canton Museum of Art, Cleveland Clinic, The Dalad Group, Minneapolis Institute of Art and Morikami Museum. She has been printing at Zygote Press and making paper at the Morgan Conservatory in Cleveland.
Artist Statement
My recent work incorporates multiple experimental processes, including etching, aquatint, monotype, indigo dye, and cyanotype on pleated, stitched or twisted paper. Most of the work utilizes old book pages from Japan and handmade papers that are made from kozo or abaca fibers. Transparency, form, and texture all take priority as I construct my two or three dimensional patchwork experiments. The notions of history and recycling are central in my body of work.