L.A. sculptor Kenzi Shiokava died June 18 at age 82. His passing was announced by the Japanese American National Museum. JANM featured Shiokava’s totemic wood sculptures in the 2017 Pacific Standard Time exhibition “Transpacific Borderlands: The Art of Japanese Diaspora in Lima, Los Angeles, Mexico City, and São Paulo.” The artist was an ideal fit for the show. Born to Japanese immigrant parents in Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, at age 25 he followed his sister to Los Angeles in 1964.  

The young Shiokava enrolled in the Chouinard Institute (now CalArts) focused on painting. Fulfilling a sculpture requirement his senior year of 1972, he struck upon his life’s work: Carved found wood, arranged vertically in clusters. He went on to earn his MFA from Otis Art Institute (now Otis College of Art and Design) in 1974. From small found wood pieces such as railroad ties, he moved up to sections of tree trunks and telephone poles, often several feet above head height. He tapered them and hollowed them out using only hand tools. He appears to have arrived at many a form by carving away sections of burnt wood to reveal the contrasting unburnt wood beneath. The totems seem both ancient and modern. Mixed in with these form-centric works are assemblages–wood pillars with cascades of macramé, electronic wires and found materials both organic and non. The artist was influenced by L.A.’s Black assemblage artists, his contemporaries, including John Outterbridge, Noah Purifoy and Betye Saar.  

Kenzi Shiokava. Installation view, Made in L.A. 2016: a, the, though, only, June 12 – August 28, 2016, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. Photo: Brian Forrest.

Shiokava made a living as a gardener, notably for Marlon Brando, while maintaining a studio practice in Compton,. (Brando acquired one of his sculptures, as did Jack Nicholson.) He showed at such local institutions as the Watts Towers Arts Center and even MOCA but was not widely recognized until he was 78 years old. It was then that the Hammer Museum presented a large installation of his work in the 2016 Made in L.A. biennial. Nothing else in the museum-wide exhibition came close to his singular, fully-realized vision, honed over decades. Opening night found the artist overcome with joy. As new admirers approached to congratulate him–many stooping to meet his eyes, as he stood under five feet tall–he threw his arms around them, the lei at his neck swinging. Visitors voted him best in show via voting stations around the museum, earning him the Mohn Public Recognition Award of $25,000. L.A. Times art reviewer Carolina A. Miranda declared Kenzi Shiokava the biennial’s “breakout star.” In a KPCC Off-Ramp interview during the exhibition’s run, he said, “Now I know my work is going to survive me.”