Keven Furiya

Keven Furiya is an active member of the Seattle art community who has created art in the city for more than 25 years. While pursuing his own practice and exhibiting locally, Furiya has also moderated various life drawing sessions in the art community. His art education began at Seattle Central Community College, with Graphic Design and Illustration. This was combined with work as studio assistant to Seattle-based artist William Elston. As a nisei (American-born Japanese), Furiya is inspired by the work and shares many of the subjects that intrigued artists Kamekichi Tokita (1897–1948) and Kenjiro Nomura (1896–1956). Both immigrated from Japan at the turn of the 20th century, becoming Seattle business partners in a sign-painting shop. This was located in the Nihonmachi, that local precinct currently known as the Chinatown International District. Prominent contributors to the Pacific Northwest art world from the early 1900’s to the 1940s, each participated in the national Public Works of Art Project (PWAP). Both artists’ plein air paintings of their neighborhoods and surroundings provide a visual snapshot of their era: a time which, for the city, proved pivotal. They continue to influence Furiya’s urban landscapes, his interiors and his portraits of fellow artists.