Roy Kiyooka

Roy Kenzie Kiyooka (January 18, 1926 – January 8, 1994) was a Canadian painter, poet, photographer, arts teacher.

Biography A Nisei, or a second generation Japanese Canadian, Roy Kenzie Kiyooka was born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and raised in Calgary, Alberta. His parents were Harry Shigekiyo Kiyooka and Mary Kiyoshi Kiyooka. Roy's grandfather on the maternal side, a samurai Ōe Masamichi, was the 17th headmaster of the Musō Jikiden Eishin-ryū school of swordsmanship. where he worked with famed art American critic Clement Greenberg and abstract expressionist painter Barnett Newman.

In 1956, Kiyooka began teaching at the Regina College of Art. He moved to Vancouver in 1959, and began to shift his practice away from painting and towards photography and eventually filmmaking. In 1965, he represented Canada at the Eighth Sao Paulo Biennial. In 1969, he created the sculpture, Abu Ben Adam's Vinyl Dream, for the Canadian pavilion at Expo '70 in Osaka, Japan. transcanada letters. Talonbooks, Vancouver 1975. Repr.: 2004. Pear Tree Pomes 1987. Illus. by David Bolduc. Coach House Press, Toronto 1987. Nominated for the 1987 Governor General Award.

Books published posthumously include: Daphne Marlatt (ed.): Mothertalk: Life Stories of Mary Kiyoshi Kiyooka. NeWest Press, Edmonton 1997. Roy Kiyooka's mother, Mary Kiyoshi Kiyooka's, story from a series of interviews by Matsuki Masutani and reworked by Roy Kiyooka.

Roy K. Kiyooka: 25 Years (Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC), 21 November-16 December 1976.

Awards 1973 Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award