Visual Dialogues: Public Art and Social Transformation

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The public art projects of Katie Yamasaki have covered topics from the Japanese Internment to the militarization of inner city youth. In just 8 years since the completion of her MFA at the School of Visual Arts, her work has earned her invitations to develop public art projects in Chiapas, Mexico with the Zapatista Army for National Liberation, Santiago de Cuba, rural Appalachia, Sevilla and Barcelona, Spain, Namibia, Japan, Detroit, New Jersey, Indiana and all over New York City.

For Yamasaki, public and mural art has the unique ability to create new dialogues that challenge the evolving identities of communities in transition, communities of political and/or cultural resistance and communities of the displaced/disenfranchised. Her work, culturally and politically is woven together by the common threads of communication, transformation and liberation.

Yamasaki will share her global public art projects as well as her past and upcoming book projects, two in particular. Fish for Jimmy is a book for children which will be published in September, 2012. Based on a family story, it tells the story of two boys in the Japanese Internment Camps. It is Yamasaki’s first published book as both author/illustrator. She will also discuss Yama, the illustrated biography of her grandfather, architect Minoru Yamasaki. This story tells the tale of the Nisei experience from the perspective of her grandfather who came to be known as one of the most influential American architects of the 20th Century.

Finally, the presentation will consider the evolving role of public art and art of cultural identity in the ever-changing Asian American community.

To see samples of Yamasaki’s work, please visit her website at www.katieyamasaki.com.

Author Bio

Katie Yamasaki is a muralist and children’s book artist. She has traveled widely, painting over 80 murals with diverse communities around the world that explore local issues of identity and social justice. Her children’s book work focuses on similar themes of social justice and stories from underrepresented communities. Her murals take a participatory approach, working with local community members to find ways to best share the stories they want to tell.

Yamasaki wrote and illustrated “Shapes, Lines, and Light: My Grandfather’s American Journey” (Norton Young Readers, 2022), which tells the story of her grandfather, acclaimed Japanese American architect, Minoru Yamasaki. Her other books “When the Cousins Came” and “Fish for Jimmy” recount personal family stories about World War II incarceration camps and growing up in a multi-racial family. She also co-authored “Everything Naomi Loved,” with Ian Lendler (NYR, 2020), dealing with the topic of gentrification.

Yamasaki is currently in the early phases of a multi-year residency with the Women and Justice Project, in partnership with justice organizations around the city, to build a campaign of legislative reform and culture change around issues of gender justice and the mass incarceration of women.

Yamasaki earned her BA from Earlham College and MFA from the School of Visual Arts in NYC. She is a teaching artist at The Center for Fiction in Brooklyn. You can explore more of Yamasaki’s work on her website, www.katieyamasaki.com, or Instagram page, @katieyamasaki.