Joe Suzuki

Joe Suzuki is a visual artist working in Los Angeles. He was born in Tokyo in 1976 and immigrated to the United States in 1988.  Suzuki received his BA and MA in fine art from Cal State Northridge and his MFA from Claremont Graduate University in 2005.  Suzuki's artworks have been shown in LA, NY, Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong.  His works have been shown at Cartelle Gallery, Korean Cultural Center, Japanese American Cultural Center, Wignall Museum, Riverside Art Museum, Duke Gallery at Azusa Pacific University, Sam Lee Gallery, Gallery Lara in Tokyo, and Krause Gallery in New York.

Statement:

"I consider my work to be artifacts of my particular culture, which is not the generalized Japanese American culture, but that which formed as a direct result of being a first generation immigrant. Through a long assimilation process, I found myself not fully belonging to either culture, but rather somewhere in between, which I began to call Japamerica. In my peculiar culture, customs and traditions are born out of misunderstandings or idiosyncrasies, and myths and legends are often formed through the struggles of everyday life. I am fascinated by and curious about my culture's development and the effect it has on my identity. I see my art making as an investigation that captures and documents my ever changing, mutating, polyglot reality. My life informs my work, contingent on my ordinary, real world experiences as a middle-class Japamerican dad, who is trying to make sense of it all."