Maya Fuji
2027 Eureka Fellow
Through painting and traditional Japanese craft, Maya Fuji explores the liminal space of being an issei (first-generation Japanese) mixed-race woman in the US. Her work embodies the way she has experienced shifts in tradition within her family and community after immigrating to the Bay Area from Kanazawa, Japan. Inspired by mythology and folklore, she also references Showa, Heisei, and Bay Area subcultures.
Her paintings portray nostalgic memories of childhood and the feelings of being foreign in both Japanese and American communities. Through these lived experiences, her work meditates on the ways ethnically mixed people, immigrants, and children of immigrants keep traditions alive while creating new ways of living.
Fuji’s work is in the permanent collection of the Crocker Art Museum and has been featured in publications such as New American Paintings, Artmaze Mag, Metal Magazine, and Immigrantly Podcast. She has had solo presentations at Charlie James Gallery in LA and YOD Gallery in Osaka, and has recently exhibited work at Marjorie Barrick Museum in Nevada. Awards and residencies include the Headlands Center For The Arts Tournesol Award, Innovate Grant, San Francisco Arts Commission Artist Grant, Wassaic Projects, and Virginia Center For The Arts.
She is currently represented by Charlie James Gallery in Los Angeles, and is currently working on various projects, including an immersive installation blending traditional art and virtual reality.
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