Roger Shimomura, American Infamy, 2006, Acrylic on canvas panels, 61.62 x 100.5″, Collection Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Acquired with funds provided by JCCC and Marti and Tony Oppenheimer and the Oppenheimer Brothers Foundation
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• American, b. 1939 in Seattle, Washington
• Lives and works in Lawrence, Kansas
• BA from the University of Washington in 1961; MFA degree from Syracuse University

BIOGRAPHY

Roger Shimomura, 2003, Housing Discrimination, acrylic on canvas

Shimomura was born in Seattle’s Central District. His first few years were spent interned with his family at the Puyallup State Fairgrounds while permanent camps were being built by the U.S. government. Soon he and his family moved to Camp Minidoka in southern Idaho. His father was told by administrators to seek employment outside the Western coast, and so the family settled briefly in South Chicago. After the war ended, the Shimomura family was permitted to return to Seattle, where Shimomura developed his interest in art.  He served in the U.S. Army two years as an artillery officer in Korea, then moved to New York where he worked as a graphic designer. He taught at the University of Kansas beginning in 1969, and he was designated a University Distinguished Professor in 1994, the first so honored in the history of the School of Fine Arts. His work is represented in the permanent collections of over 85 museums nationwide. A past winner of the Kansas Governor’s Arts Award, in 2008, he was designated the first Kansas Master Artist and was honored by the Asian American Arts Alliance, N.Y.C. as “Exceptional People in Fashion, Food & the Arts.” His personal papers and letters are being collected by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.

Roger Shimomura, 1978, Minidoka No. 3 (Diary), acrylic on canvas, Spencer Museum of Art, KU