Esther Shimazu

Esther Shimazu is an American sculptor who was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1957. Her grandparents were immigrant laborers from Japan. She attended the University of Hawaii at Manoa before transferring to the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, where she received a Bachelor of Fine Art in 1980 and a Master of Fine Art in 1982.^[1]

Esther Shimazu
Born	1957 Honolulu, Hawaii
Nationality	American
Known for	Ceramics, sculpture
Website	http://www.esthershimazu.com/

She is best known for her stoneware sculptures of bald, nude chunky Asian women constructed with hand building techniques. They are colored with slips and oxides, bisque-fired, hand-sanded, and colored further with rubbed-in and airbrushed oxides. Then they are fired to cone 5-6 oxidation and sanded one last time.

She received a Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation Purchase Award, 2001, and an Individual Artist Fellowship Award from the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, 1995.^[2] In 2020, Shimazu participated in a Zoom webinar offered by the John Natsoulas Center for the Arts called "Learn how to build a dog" where she interacted with viewers while constructing a ceramic dog.^[3] Shimazu's work was included in the 2021 Hawai‘i Craftsmen Annual Statewide Exhibition at the Downtown Art Center.^[4]

References

 

'Jardinier', stoneware sculpture by Esther Shimazu, 1993, Hawaii State Art Museum

• Clarke, Joan; Dods, Diane (1996). Artists/Hawaii. Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press. pp. 86–91. ISBN 0-8248-1859-8.
• Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, The Contemporary Museum Biennial of Hawaii Artists I, Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, 1993, pp. 14–15.
• Hartwell, Patricia L. (editor), Retrospective 1967-1987, Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1987, p. 96
• Morse, Marcia and Allison Wong, 10 Years: The Contemporary Museum at First Hawaiian Center, The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, 2006, ISBN 1888254076, p. 102
• Shimazu, Esther (1999). Esther Shimazu. Davis, CA: John Natsoulao Press. ISBN 978-1-881572-77-0.
• Yoshihara, Lisa A., Collective Visions, 1967-1997, An Exhibition Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, Art in Public Places Program, Presented at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, September 3-October 12, 1997, Honolulu, State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, 1997, p. 82.

Footnotes

1. . Ceramic Arts Daily. Archived from the original on 2013-07-22. Retrieved 2014-04-03.
2. http://www.hawaii.edu/artgallery/8th_shoebox/artists/pages/Shimazu.html^{[permanent dead link]}
3. Parsell, Kari Rose (2020-06-10). "Clay Dates!". Sacramento Magazine. Retrieved 2022-05-25.
4. Mark, Steven (31 October 2021). "Three new art exhibits draw from a trove of talent from Hawaii". Honolulu Star. Retrieved 24 May 2022.