Roger Shimomura's paintings, print and theater pieces address socio-political issues of Asian America and have often been inspired by 56 years of diaries kept by his late immigrant grandmother.
He received his B.A. in 1961 from the University of Washington in Seattle and his M.F.A. in 1969 from Syracuse University, New York. He has had over 100 solo exhibitions of his paintings and prints, as well as presented his experimental theatre pieces at such venues as the Franklin Furnace, New York City; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian.
He is the recipient of four National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships in painting and performance art, a recipient of a McKnight Fellowship, a Civil Liberties Public Education Fellowship, and was the first artist internationally to be awarded a Japan Foundation grant, as well as the first in the state to receive the Kansas Arts Commission Artist Fellowship in Painting.
In the fall of 1990, Roger was appointed the Dayton Hudson Distinguished Visiting Artist and Teacher at Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota. He has lectured on his work at over 160 universities and art museums across the country. In 1994 he was designated a University Distinguished Professor on the University of Kansas faculty, the first so honored in the history of the School of Fine Arts on that campus. In 1998, he was the recipient of the Higuchi Research Prize, the highest annual honor bestowed upon a Kansas University faculty member in the Humanities and Social Sciences.
In 1999, the Seattle Urban League announced that they had named a scholarship under his name that since then has been awarded annually to a Seattle resident that is pursuing a career in art. Most recently the College Art Association presented him with the "Artist Award for Most Distinguished Body of Work," for his 4-year, 12-museum national tour of the painting exhibition, "An American Diary." The Whitney Museum of American Art purchased his “Yellow No Same” series in 2003.
Roger's personal papers are being collected by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. He is represented by Jeffrey Hoffeld & Company, Inc., New York City; Jan Cicero Gallery, Chicago; Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, Miami; and Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle.
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