I am a multi-media artist, filmmaker, and activist.

I was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan and graduated from Tokyo Zokei University in 1987 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. I came to the U.S. to attend Pilchuck Glass School in 1993 and worked for Dale Chihuly as a studio assistant for eight years. I became independent in 2003 and since then, I have been making art full time. After living in Seattle for 29 years, I had traveled around the world nomadically for a year and a half and moved to the Big Island of Hawaii in early 2023. My work has been exhibited internationally, including The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Seattle Art Museum, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, The Ueno Royal Museum in Tokyo, and The Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv. I work with fine art galleries in the U.S., Asia, and Europe, including Winston Wächter Fine Art in New York and Seattle, Michael Warren Contemporary in Denver, Turner Carroll Gallery in Santa Fe, and Sarah Myerscough Gallery in London. I have received grants from numerous institutions including the Pollock Krasner Foundation, Artist Trust Arts Innovator Award, and Americans for the Arts Funding, and my exhibit NACHI was supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. My work was featured in Crafted: Objects in Flux published by MFA Boston and reviewed in national publications such as Sculpture Magazine, NY Arts Magazine, and GLASS Quarterly.

I volunteer to support the environment and world peace. I am a co-founder of Artists for Japan, a Seattle-based grassroots organization to support the relief efforts of the Great East Japan earthquake and aftermath, and a member of NOddIN, a Tokyo-based collective of filmmakers.

Artist Statement

I could describe that my art making is like creating visual poetry. I work in a broad range of media: drawing, sculpture, installation, performance, film, poetry, and socially engaged art. I do my best when I work intuitively and spontaneously using ephemeral materials such as fire and water.

My Glass Pyrograph is an abstract  drawing on paper made with fire by scorching molten glass. This work captures and eternalizes the immediacy of a moment, and it is a trace of my body movement with fluid glass.

In my recent body of work, titled VITRIFIED, I use uranium glass as a key element in my sculpture, installation, film, and photography. This particular choice of material relates to a shift in my personal values that occurred after the devastating 2011 Fukushima nuclear meltdown in Japan. I subsequently visited the Hanford site, where I learned about vitrification technology which transforms radioactive waste into glass for ultimate disposal. This experience connected many things for me – my love of glass, my Japanese heritage and nuclear legacy, my perspective looking through the lens of America, and my fear, hope, and responsibility for the future.

I was born and raised in Tokyo and have lived in the U.S. for almost 30 years. Both places are home to me, and while my life is rooted in America, my spiritual-seeking and aesthetic sensibilities strongly call to Japan. My work is a reflection of myself in these two distinctively different cultures.

Resume

1963:   Born in Tokyo, Japan

1993-2021:   Lived and worked in Seattle, Washington, USA

2021-2022:  Traveling around the world to participate in art residencies

2023-2024:   Lives and works on Big Island, Hawaii, USA

2024: Relocated in Tokyo, Japan

EDUCATION

1993,1994,2000:   Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, WA (summer programs)

1991-1992:   Tokyo Glass Art Institute, Kanagawa

1983-1987:   BFA in Painting, Tokyo Zokei University, Tokyo

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2026

• New Pyrograph, Michael Warren Contemporary, Denver, CO (forthcoming)

2025

• New Pyrograph, Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA (forthcoming)

2024

• Fireflies Homecoming, KOBO at Higo, Seattle, WA

2023

• 1200 degrees,Eretz Israel Museum,Tel Aviv, Israel
• Drawing with Fire: Works on Paper by Etsuko Ichikawa, Mobius Gallery, Cascadia College, Bothell, WA

2020-2021

• Broken Poems of Fireflies,Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Washington State University, Pullman, WA

2020

• New Traces, Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA

2019

• Vitrified, Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York, NY
• Vitrified, Gallery One Visual Arts Center, Ellensburg, WA

2018

• Water Within,Michael Warren Contemporary, Denver, CO
• Vitrified,Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA

2016-2017

• Traces,Jack Straw Cultural Center, Seattle, WA

2015

• Act of Drawing,Michael Warren Contemporary, Denver, CO
• HAKONIWA Project,Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner, WA

2014

• Act of Drawing,Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA
• Echo at Satsop,New Media Gallery, Jack Straw Productions, Seattle, WA
• Glass Pyrograph on Paper,ponyhof artclub contemporary art, Munich, Germany

2013

• Echo at Satsop,Davidson Galleries, Seattle, WA

2012

• Tracing Light,Waterhouse & Dodd, New York, NY
• Pyrograph & Aquagraph,TASTE at Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA

2011

• Pyrograph & Aquagraph,Davidson Galleries, Seattle, WA
• NACHI – between the eternal and the ephemeral,University of Wyoming Art Museum, curated by Susan Moldenhauer, Laramie, WY

2009

• Glass Pyrographs,Randall Scott Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
• Moment/Memory,Function+Art, Chicago, IL
• Pyrograph,Davidson Galleries, Seattle, WA
• Trace,Randall Scott Gallery, Washington D.C.

2008-2009

• Traces of the Molten State,Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue, WA, curated by Stefano Catalani

2008

• Ephemeral Eternal,Davidson Contemporary, Seattle, WA

2007

• Fluid Moment,Gallery 4Culture, Seattle, WA

2006

• breath-memory,SOIL Gallery, Seattle, WA

2004

• Funiki: Floating Feelings,Viveza Gallery, Seattle, WA

2003

• Shadow Installation,Kirkland Arts Center, Kirkland, WA
• Kokoro, In-Between,Kirkland Performance Center, Kirkland, WA
• Kokoro, In-Between,Gallery Mohri, Tokyo, Japan

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2025

• Ten Thousand Things, The Wing Luke Museum, WA (forthcoming)

• Women of the Pacific Northwest, Bo Bartlett Center in Columbus, GA (forthcoming)

2024-2025

• The Art of Food: From the Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Washington State University, Pullman, WA

2024

• Paths of Ink, Schaefer International Gallery at Maui Arts & Cultural Center, HI

• Lines of Glass, Ruskin Glass Centre, Stourbridge, England

• 10th Anniversary Exhibit, Michael Warren Contemporary, Denver, CO

2023

• Bending the Line, Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York, NY

2022-2023

• Contemporary glass, The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT

2022

• Expanding Horizons, Glasshouse Arts and Heritage Centre, The Glasshouse, Stourbridge, England

2021-ongoing

• Art & Healing: Virtual Exhibitions, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Washington State University, Pullman, WA

2021

• 25th Anniversary Exhibition, Part Two,   Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York, NY
• Resolutions, Michael Warren Contemporary, Denver, CO

2020

• New From The Northwest, Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA
• Solstice: Create Art for Earth, Turner Carroll Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, curated by Judy Chicago
• Six Feet Apart, Michael Warren Contemporary, Denver, CO
• Burned: Women and Fire, Turner Carroll Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
• The Implications of a Simple Landscape,North Seattle Community Collage, Seattle, WA
• A New State of Matter: Contemporary Glass,Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids, MI
• NOddIN 4th Exhibition: UNLEARNING,Koganemachi Area, Yokohama, Japan

2019

• Digital Perspectives, Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA
• Moving Image Matters: Documenting and Performing Craft in Video, The Center for Art in Wood, Philadelphia, PA, curated by Jennifer-Navva Milliken
• Now Playing:New Forms in Contemporary Glass,William King Museum of Art, Abingdon, VA

2018-2019

• A New State of Matter: Contemporary Glass,Boise Art Museum, Boise, ID
• BAM Biennial Glasstastic, Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue, WA

2018

• Radiating Echoes – What is Beautiful?,Jack Straw Shorts, Northwest Film Forum, Seattle, WA (film screening)
• VITRIFIED,45th Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival, Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR (film screening)
• West Coast Artists, Michael Warren Contemporary, Denver, CO

2017-2018

• 47th Collectors Show,Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR

2017

• Looking through the lens of NOddIN,Northwest Film Forum, Seattle, WA (curation, film screening)
• And She Persisted: Voices of Women Artists,Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, Seattle, WA
• Abstrakt XX / XY, GALERIE BENJAMIN ECK, Munich, Germany
• Local Sightings Film Festival,Northwest Film Forum, Seattle, WA (film screening)

2016

• IN CONTEXT,Seattle Art Fair Satellite Exhibit, Seattle, WA
• Cultural Typhoon,Tokyo University of the Arts, Tokyo, Japan

2015

• soft universe,21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Annex Tea House, Kanazawa, Japan
• Objects in Flux,Museum of Fine Arts Boston, curated by Emily Zilber, Boston, MA
• NOddIN 3rd Exhibition,Claska Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

2014

• One Thousand Questions – Hiroshima to Hanford,Columbia City Gallery, Seattle, WA
• NOddIN 2nd Exhibition,Claska Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

2013

• The Horizontalists,Lawrence Fine Art, East Hampton, NY
• The Horizontalists,Studio Vendome, New York, NY
• Paper Unbound: Horiuchi and Beyond,Wing Luke Asian Museum, Seattle, WA

2012

• Elles: Featuring Northwest Women Artists,SAM Gallery, Seattle, WA
• Spring Exhibition,D’ART Gallery, Hong Kong

2011

• Seattle as Collector,Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA
• Bloom & Collapse,SOIL Gallery, Seattle, WA

2010

• Winter Haiku,Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, CA 

2009

• Elusive Elements,Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner, WA, curated by Kathleen Moles
• Visions of Eternity,PressItOn Art Gallery, Miami, FL
• Abstracted Remains,Tarryn Teresa Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
• West Coast Drawings,Koplin Del Rio Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2008

• The East and The East,The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo, Japan
• Dualities,curated by Jess Van Nostrand and Barbara Shaiman, Cornish Gallery and SAM Gallery, Seattle, WA
• Marked,curated by Jerry Misko, Dust Gallery, Las Vegas, NV
• 35th Anniversary Cerebration,SAM Gallery, Seattle, WA

2007

• Postcards From the Edge,James Cohan Gallery, New York, NY 
• Mark,Randall Scott Gallery, Washington D.C.
• START,PRISM Contemporary Glass, Chicago, IL
• Vestiges,Function+Art, Chicago, IL
• Full Spectrum,PF Galleries, Clawson, MI
• Filter,curated by Michelle Kumata and Heinrich Toh, Kirkland Art Center, Kirkland, WA

2006

• Contemporary Sculpture,Catherine Person Gallery, Seattle, WA
• nooksandcrannieswith Julie Custer and Marc Dombrosky, SOIL Gallery, Seattle, WA (curatorial)
• Hardline Organics,SOIL Gallery, Seattle, WA
• Impressed,Arts Council of Snohomish County, Everett, WA

2005

• Raw & Refined,Seattle Center, Seattle, WA, curated by Jess Van Nostrand
• Found in Translation,TORA Gallery, Mount Vernon, WA
• SOIL 1995-2005: A Retrospective,SOIL Gallery, Seattle, WA
• Urban Art Installations,Woolworth Building, Tacoma, WA
• Unearthing,SOIL Gallery, Seattle, WA

2004

• She Stole the Show,Capitol Hill Arts Center, Seattle, WA
• Members Exhibition,Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle, WA
• Artist in Residence Exhibition,Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, WA

2003

• Bemis Fall Art,Bemis Building, Seattle, WA
• LELA,The Modern Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
• Members Exhibition,Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle, WA

2002

• APEX in L.A.,Angels Gate Culture Center Gallery, San Pedro, CA
• Members Exhibition,Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle, WA

2000

• Chromosome,Cold Rainier Building, Seattle, WA
• Concerning the Angels,Cold Rainier Building, Seattle, WA

1995

• Clouds,Galerie Vromans, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

1987

• Senior Exhibition,Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
• Senior Exhibition,Tokyo Central Museum of Arts, Tokyo, Japan

1985

• Two Persons Show,Kuryua Art Spot, Tokyo, Japan

1984

• Subaru Mandoki Soba Hachigo,Gallery Parerugon, Tokyo, Japan

SELECTED PERFORMANCE AND THEATRE PROJECTS

2020:

• Burned: Women and Fire, Glass Performance, Liquid Light Glass, Santa Fe, NM
• VITRIFIED, Collaborative performance with Dai Matsuoka, Koganecho Area, Yokohama, Japan

2019:   REFRACT – Fused: A Festival of Glass, Glass Performance, Pratt Fine Arts Center, Seattle, WA

2014:   Glass in Motion, Glass Performance, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA

2013:   Glass Pyrograph on Beach, Glass Performance, Center on Contemporary Art, Shilshole Bay Beach Club, Seattle, WA

2010:   FIREBIRD, Glass and Dance Performance, Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA

2007, 2006:   Cuckoo Crow, Scenic Design for Degenerate Art Ensemble, The Moore Theatre and Bagley Wright Theatre, Seattle, WA, and REDCAT, CalArts Theater, Los Angeles, CA

1985:   Golden Natto, Scenic Design, Theatre Tiny Alice, Tokyo, Japan

AFFILIATION

2014–current:   NOddIN, member (filmmakers and activists collective based in Tokyo, Japan)

2011–current:   Artists For Japan, Co-Founder (grassroots group supporting Japan relief since 3.11.2011 earthquake

2021–2022:   From Hiroshima to Hope, Board member (community-based 501c3 organization based in Seattle, WA)

Residencies

• Judith Murdock Kohl Artist and Writers Residency, Point Arena, CA, 2022
• Bandits’ Palace Residency, Portland, OR 2022
• Mary Kiesau Community Fellowship Residency, Methow Valley, WA, 2022
• Ogawa Village Residency, Nagano, Japan, 2022
• Hawai’I Volcanoes National Park Residency, National Parks Arts Foundation, Big Island, Hawai’I, 2021
• Ute Mountain Studios Residency, 2021
• Mighty Tieton Residency, Tieton, WA, 2013
• John H. Hauberg Fellowship Residency, Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, WA, 2011
• Visiting Artist Program, University of Wyoming, Art, Dance, and Theatre Departments, Laramie, WY, 2011
• Jentel Artist Residency, Banner, WY, 2009
• PONCHO Artist-in-Residence Program, Pratt Fine Arts Center, Seattle, WA, 2003, 2002

Collections and Commissions

SELECTED PUBLIC AND CORPORATE COLLECTIONS

• Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel
• Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Washington State University, Pullman, WA
• Oriental Museum, Durham University, Durham, England
• Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA
• Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA
• Till Richter Museum, Buggenhagen, Germany
• Ruskin Glass Centre, Stourbridge, England
• Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
• State of New Mexico Art in Public Places, NM
• Washington State Public Arts Commission, WA
• King County Portable Art Collection, WA
• City of Seattle, WA
• North Seattle Collage, WA
• Seattle City Light, WA
• Seattle Children’s Hospital, WA
• University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle, WA
• Microsoft, Redmond, WA
• Sumitomo Corporation of America, Houston, TX
• U.S. Bank Center, Seattle, WA
• The Garden at 550 Madison, New York, NY
• The Empire Hotel, New York, NY
• St. Regis, New York, NY
• The Alexandria at Torrey Pines, San Diego, CA
• Four Seasons Hotel, Hong Kong
• Shangri-La Hotel, Tokyo, Japan
• Raffles Hotel, Shenzhen, China
• Hotel Lisboa, Macau
• Hyatt Regency, Hawaii

PUBLIC ART COMMISSIONS

• Foster High School, Tukwila, WA, 2021
• Pullman High School, Pullman, WA, 2018
• Frederickson Elementary School, Puyallup, WA, 2012
• Covington Middle School, Vancouver, WA, 2008

Awards

• Mary Kiesau Community Fellowship, Methow Valley, WA, 2021
• Arts Innovator Award, Artist Trust, Seattle, WA, 2020
• CityArtist Projects Grant, City of Seattle, Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, Seattle, WA, 2019, 2010, 2006
• Edwin T. Pratt Scholarship, Pratt Fine Arts Center, Seattle, WA, 2017
• Visiting Artist Program, Hot Shop at Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA, 2017, 2008, 2004
• 12th Semiannual Competition Grand Prize, Dave Bown Projects, New York, NY, 2016
• Individual Projects Grant, 4Culture, Seattle, WA, 2016, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2006, 2005
• The Clark Hulings Fund, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2015
• Artist Support Program, Jack Straw Cultural Center, Seattle, WA, 2021, 2015, 2013
• Grants for Artist Projects, Artist Trust, Seattle, WA, 2012, 2008
• Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, New York, NY (for NACHI exhibit), 2011
• National Endowment for the Arts, Washington DC (for NACHI exhibit), 2011
• Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant, New York, NY, 2009
• Americans for the Arts Funding, Washington State Arts Commission, Olympia, WA, 2009
• Special Projects Grant, Bellevue Arts Commission, Bellevue, WA, 2008
• Media Literacy Scholarships, 911 Media Arts Center, Seattle, WA, 2008
• Jon and Mary Shirley Glass Scholarship, Pratt Fine Arts Center, Seattle, WA, 2006
• EDGE Professional Development Program Scholarship, Artist Trust, Seattle, WA, 2005
• George Tsutakawa Memorial Scholarship in Sculpture, Pratt Fine Arts Center, Seattle, WA, 2002

Publications

• David Schnuckel, Of It, But Without, GASnews, Spring 2023, Volume 37, Issue 1, cover & page 5
• Burned: Women and Fire, Exhibition Catalogue, published by Turner Carroll Gallery, 2020, page 10-14
• Glass: Masterworks in Glass from the Chrysler Museum of Art, Chrysler Museum of Art, 2017
• Objects in Flux, Exhibition Catalogue, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, 2015
• Marika Yoshikawa, Collect & Connect, published by Arts & Books, August 2015, page 212-217
• Tracing the Light, Exhibition Catalogue, published by Waterhouse & Dodd Fine Art, 2012
• Etsuko Ichikawa: NACHI – between the eternal and the ephemeral, exhibit catalogue, University of Wyoming Art Museum, 2012
• New Glass Review 31, Corning Museum of Glass, 2010, Page 22
• SOIL 2008, essay by Jill Conner, published by SOIL, 2008
• Studio Visit volume 2, published by The Open Studios Press, 2008
• One Shot 2006, published by Visual Codec, April 2007
• SOIL 2006, essay by Greg Bell, published by SOIL, 2006, Page 18-19
• SOIL Artist-Run Gallery 1995-2005, published by SOIL, essay by Jess Van Nostrand, 2005
• Raw & Refined, Exhibition Catalogue, 2005, Page 14-15
• Maiko Uchida / Kasumi Iida, The Place Where You Can be Yourself, Kobunsha, March 2005, chapter 2, page 89-91
• LELA, Exhibition Catalogue, 2003, Page 15
• APEX in L.A., Exhibition Catalogue, 2002, Page 130
• Michi Konoshita, Daily life which has work, Vingtaine, Fujingahosha, July 1998, Page 161-164
• Maki Akuta, My work place is a world, Oggi, Shogakukan, November 1998, Page 261-264
• Machiko Nagai, The portrait of Japanese women living abroad Part 2, Futabasha, 1996, Page 119-128
• New Glass Review 17, Corning Museum of Glass, February 1996, Page 86

Films and Videos

• Murmurings of Love, short film, producer/director/performer/editor, film by Masahiro Sugano, 2019
• VITRIFIED, short film, producer/director/performer/editor, film by Masahiro Sugano, 2018
• Radiating Echoes – What is Beautiful?, short film, producer/director/performer/editor, film & edit by Ian Lucero, 2016
• One Thousand Questions, project video, producer/director/performer/editor, video & edit by Kyle Porter, 2014
• Echo at Satsop, short film, producer/director/performer/editor, film & edit by Ian Lucero, 2013
• Glass Pyrograph on Beach, documentation video, producer/director/performer, video & edit by Kyle Porter, 2013
• 2100° / 451°, short film, performer/featured artist, produced by the Anthropologist, directed by Alistair Banks Griffin, 2011
• FIREBIRD, documentation video, producer/director/performer, video & edit by Ian Lucero, 2010
• Traces of the Molten State, installation video, director/videographer/editor, music by Tobin Buttram, 2008
• breath-memory, documentation video, featured artist, video & edit by Ian Lucero, music by Golden Climax Twins, 2006
• DEAI, documentation video, featured artist, video & edit by Joe Randazzo, footage from residency at Museum of Glass, 2005