Keiko Fukazawa

Keiko Fukazawa (born 1955 in Niigata, Niigata Prefecture, Japan) is an Issei (first generation) Japanese ceramicist active in the United States. Her "functional, though impractical...interpretations of traditional forms serve as a personal vehicle of expression to integrate her heritage with her American environment." She states, "I want to share something as an immigrant artist." After moving to the United States to escape the limited opportunities for women artists in Japan, she studied at Otis College of Art and Design and Parsons School of Art. She later changed her focus to ceramics to pursue a more practical profession for a woman in Japan. Completing her post-graduate studies in ceramics there in 1981, In 1998, Fukazawa married photographer Dennis O. Callwood. In a joint 2002 exhibition Art and Deviation, the couple challenged "assumptions about 'juvie' kids and their so-called low culture" through works in collaboration with youth at Camp Ronald McNair, an incarcerating rehabilitative center in Lancaster, CA.

Artist statement Fukazawa has stated:

There are many directions to explore in clay. It is important to open myself to this era and this moment, and to use the material freely... I really enjoy the inconsistencies and mysteries of clay and glaze... My interest now is in making environmental pieces using both figurative and abstract expression.