Kay Sekimachi

Kay Sekimachi was born in San Francisco on September 30, 1926[1] to first generation Japanese Americans Takao Sekimachi and Wakuri Sekimachi.[2] Sekimachi was interned with her family at Tanforan Assembly Center and then the Topaz War Relocation Center from 1942 to 1944.[2]

From 1946 to 1949 she attended the California College of Arts and Crafts, where she initially studied painting, design, and silkscreening.[3] After she visited the weaving room and saw students working on looms, she spent her entire savings on a loom the following day though she did not know anything about weaving.[4] She started her art career weaving clothing and two-dimensional wall pieces.[5] She heard Trude Guermonprez speak at Pond Farm[6] and later studied with her during the summer of 1954. Guermonprez challenged Sekimachi, leading her to take on more complex artistic projects. Sekimachi commented in an 1959 article that "Until then I was simply using accepted techniques and relying on books and traditional patterns."[3]

She attended the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Liberty, Maine where she studied with Jack Lenor Larsen in 1956.[7] A staunch champion of her work, Larsen also commissioned Sekimachi to design a fabric for his production company.[3]

She started experimenting with nylon monofilament hangings and weaving off loom by 1963.[5] Her complex three-dimensional nylon hangings were featured several of the major exhibitions of the fiber arts movement, including Wall Hangings at the Museum of Modern Art (1969), Deliberate Entanglements at UCLA (1971) and the Biennale internationale de la tapisserie, Lausanne Switzerland in 1975 and 1983.[8]

Sekimachi was part of the New Basketry movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s.[6] Her later works comprised small woven baskets. She also created woven paperfold-like boxes with a Japanese influence.[5] She later created baskets of linen warp ends and rice paper. Most recently, Sekimachi has incorporated objects found while beachcombing into her works, also creating jewelry.[9]

Sekimachi lives in Berkeley, California. In 1972, Sekimachi married woodturner Bob Stocksdale (1972–2003).[10]

Sekimachi's works are in many museum collections. These include:

• Metropolitan Museum of Art[11]
• Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco[12]
• Smithsonian Institution[13]
• Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris
• Honolulu Museum of Art Spalding House (formerly The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu)[14]
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art[15]
• Oakland Museum of California[16]
• Museum of Fine Arts, Houston[17]

Sekimachi's work has been included in numerous exhibitions. Selected solo and small group exhibitions include:

• Parallel Views: Kay Sekimachi and Nancy Selvin (1982), California Crafts Museum at the Palo Alto Cultural Center, Palo Alto, California
• Marriage in Form: Kay Sekimachi & Bob Stocksdale (1993), Palo Alto Cultural Center, Palo Alto, California.[18] The show subsequently toured to many venues across the United States.
• Kay Sekimachi: An Intimate Eye (2001), Mingei International Museum, San Diego, California
• Loom & Lathe: The Art of Kay Sekimachi and Bob Stocksdale (2008), Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, California.[19] The exhibition subsequently toured.
• Puako: Jewelry by Kay Sekimachi and Kiff Slemmons (2009), Velvet da Vinci Gallery, San Francisco
• In the Realm of Nature: Bob Stocksdale and Kay Sekimachi (2014), Mingei International Museum, San Diego[20]
• Kay Sekimachi: Student, Teacher, Artist (2016), Textile Education Gallery, De Young Museum, San Francisco
• Bob Stocksdale & Kay Sekimachi: From the Collection of Forrest L. Merrill (2016), Fresno Art Museum, Fresno, California
• Kay Sekimachi Simple Complexity: Works from the Forrest L. Merrill Collection (2016-2017) at the Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles[21]
• Kay Sekimachi Master Weaver: Innovations in Forms and Materials (2018-2019) at the Fresno Art Museum, Fresno, California[22]

• American Craft Council Fellow, 1985
• Craftsmen's Fellowship Grant, National Endowment for the Arts, 1974
• Women’s Caucus for Art Honor Award, 1997
• American Craft Council Gold Medal for Consummate Craftsmanship, 2002
• Master of Medium Award, James Renwick Alliance, Washington, DC, 2007
• Luminaries Award, Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, Massachusetts, 2011

Sekimachi has taught at the Adult Division of the San Francisco Community College as well as stints at the California College of Arts and Crafts, Lake Almanor, and the Town and Country Weavers.[3]

• Kay Sekimachi at American Craft Council
• Kay Sekimachi at Craft in America
• in Smithsonian Institution
• at De Young Museum