Norie Sato

Norie Sato is an artist whose artwork for public places over the past 25 years has incorporated individual, collaborative, design team and planning of public art projects. Much of her work involves collaboration with architects and integration with the site or context. She works from site and context-driven ideas first, then finds the appropriate form and materials. She strives to add meaning and human touch to the built environment and to consider edges, transitions, culture and connections to the environment. Norie‘s current and past work encompasses transit/transportation facilities, airports, libraries, universities, infrastructure, parks, and other civic structures. She works in sculpture, glass, terrazzo floors, integrated design work, landscape, video and light. In her studio work, she includes large works on paper and printmaking to the list of media. She has been active in the Seattle art scene since the 70s, when she was involved with and/or, an artist-run space, and as a commissioner on the Seattle Arts Commission in the nascent days of Seattle’s public art program. In addition, her own work in video, glass and on paper has been exhibited at galleries and museums around the country.

Her public art work has been recognized five times by the Public Art Network’s Year in Review. Recently, she produced a 300 ft. long glass façade for the San Francisco International Airport, artwork for University of Iowa and Iowa State University, and the new Port of Portland Headquarters. She has made work for the Arabian Library and McDowell Mountain Ranch Aquatic Center, both in Scottsdale AZ, and Miami International Airport. She was lead artist for Sound Transit’s Seattle Central Link Light Rail and has worked on transit systems in Portland, Salt Lake City and Tempe, Arizona. She was a member of the Seattle Design Commission which reviews city capital projects within the city of Seattle and is a former council member of the Public Art Network, a national organization focused on public art.