Teruko Nimura

Teruko Nimura (b. 1978, based in University Place, Washington) creates artwork with an interest in experiential discovery through active viewership and self reflection. Her multi-disciplinary practice includes installations, sculptural objects, layered drawings, and public art projects that consider the relationship to the body and the contextual specifics of space. She is interested in themes of interconnectedness, collective memory and trauma, cultural, racial, and female visibility, motherhood, and the climate crisis. Her varied explorations of mediums and methods are united by an emphasis on process, with the intentional use of multiples and repetition as ritualistic study. She has an appreciation for the language of materials and the vulnerability in the variations and flaws of handmade objects.  

Teruko received her BFA from San Francisco Art Institute and her MFA from UT Austin. She has exhibited in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. She was an OX-Bow School of Art Fellow, a mentee artist in the Austin’s LaunchPAD (Public Art Duo) program for emerging public artists, featured in the 2017 TX Biennial, and the New York City Highline’s multi-city exhibition “New Monuments for New Cities”. Since moving from Austin she was a Tacoma PARC (Public Art Reaching Community) 2020 artist, featured in the 2021 Bellevue Bellwether Arts Festival and the 2023 BIMA Spotlight Juried Exhibition and “Scanning the Room” at Vashon Center for the Arts. She is currently a nominated artist for Tacoma’s “Artists in the Archives” program and will attend the Fall 2023 Rockland Artist Residency.