Kathy Fujii-Oka threads stories from the gardens of her ancestors to make art that heals. She creates with oil and acrylics on canvas or wood, textiles, mixed media, and assembles large-scale installations. Her interdisciplinary work explores themes of incarceration, immigration, culture, identity, and spirituality, which has become a birthplace of healing as her emotional voice and her ancestors find expression.
Historical & Personal Narratives
 ABOUT the ARTIST
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NEWS
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"I advocate for change and justice"!
Tanforan Memorial Exhibition interview with Channel 7 @ AZ Gallery in San Bruno, CA 2022
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"Slide Slam", AAWAA Artist talk in SF, CA 2024
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Artist talk, JSEI in Emeryville, CA 2018
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"Informed and shaped by personal stories and experiences, Kathy creates artworks with profound originality and craftsmanship, infused with wisdom, spirit, beauty, and strength. Her work embodies the ancestral richness and resilience that resonate deeply, ensuring that vital stories are told, understood, and preserved for generations to come. We are grateful for the magnificent gifts that she shares as her journey unfolds".
Ester Hernandez, Spring 2025
"Kathy Fujii-Oka's multiple-disciplinary artworks are vehicles of layered innocence and complexity. They are visual tools of expression, which references personal growth, family history, and social injustice. Applying practiced skills of drawing, painting, and stitching, and more to each work of art, she captures the eyes, ears, and hearts of viewers who are initially responding to how she processes the reality of her life. Frequently exploring, creating, and meditating to savor her being, she is aware of what it means to not be free".
Flo Oy Wong, March 5, 2025
"Kathy Fujii-Okas richly saturated pastel colors blanket canvases large and small with lush tropical flora and fauna. Whether inhabited by floating peacocks, cherry blossoms, her beloved Pekingese puppies, or kokeshi dolls, often seen as symbols of good luck and protection, they form dreamscapes that beckon the viewer to take a closer look. As three-dimensional installations they become interactive environments, intimately magical yet conveying much more. Deeply rooted in her familys complex Japanese American history of World War II incarceration, survival and resilience, her narratives speak to a time for renewal, and a reminder of the fleeting nature of life".
Lenore Chinn, Spring 2025
Ester Hernandez, Spring 2025
"Kathy Fujii-Oka's multiple-disciplinary artworks are vehicles of layered innocence and complexity. They are visual tools of expression, which references personal growth, family history, and social injustice. Applying practiced skills of drawing, painting, and stitching, and more to each work of art, she captures the eyes, ears, and hearts of viewers who are initially responding to how she processes the reality of her life. Frequently exploring, creating, and meditating to savor her being, she is aware of what it means to not be free".
Flo Oy Wong, March 5, 2025
"Kathy Fujii-Okas richly saturated pastel colors blanket canvases large and small with lush tropical flora and fauna. Whether inhabited by floating peacocks, cherry blossoms, her beloved Pekingese puppies, or kokeshi dolls, often seen as symbols of good luck and protection, they form dreamscapes that beckon the viewer to take a closer look. As three-dimensional installations they become interactive environments, intimately magical yet conveying much more. Deeply rooted in her familys complex Japanese American history of World War II incarceration, survival and resilience, her narratives speak to a time for renewal, and a reminder of the fleeting nature of life".
Lenore Chinn, Spring 2025
Art and Spirituality
"My work is my visual voice that empowers me to speak my truth, search for answers and explore new pathways in life. I surrender my spirit and am an open channel for healing by means of Meditation. Promoting harmony, peace and balance in life is what I strive for".
"My work is my visual voice that empowers me to speak my truth, search for answers and explore new pathways in life. I surrender my spirit and am an open channel for healing by means of Meditation. Promoting harmony, peace and balance in life is what I strive for".
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