Visual Artist

Honolulu, HI 

Art has always been a fundamental part of Gordon Sasaki’s life. “From my earliest beginnings I remember being passionate about drawing—and later, painting,” he said. “It just felt right getting lost in a timeless world of creativity. I always knew I would be working in the arts because it just felt right.”

While studying art in college, Sasaki was involved in an automobile accident that resulted in a spinal cord injury. Throughout his recovery, he says art has been the vehicle through which he’s found support and expression. “It continues to enable me to go beyond the limitations of the physical and dream of possibilities."

Today, Sasaki’s award-winning work blends classical techniques with contemporary ideas of identity and culture. Combining an unexpected use of images and materials, his mixed and multimedia works of art purposefully cross over traditional boundaries to create possibilities and inclusion.

A resident of Hawaii, Sasaki shares his ideas nationally and internationally through residencies and exhibitions, and he teaches in universities, museums, schools, and private institutions, including MoMA, the New York City Department of Education, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Arts and Design, the International Center for Tolerance in Education, and the Art Academy of Latvia.

“Through my work, I reference disability as a part of my identity,” he said. “Significant, yes, but not a singular all-defining characteristic. More accurately it's just one facet of my identity that contributes towards making me who I am.”

RELATED CONTENT

NEA Podcast with Gordon Sasaki (7.23.20)