Esther Shimazu is an American sculptor who was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1957. Her grandparents were immigrant laborers from Japan. She attended the University of Hawaii at Manoa before transferring to the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, where she received a Bachelor of Fine Art in 1980 and a Master of Fine Art in 1982.

She is best known for her stoneware sculptures of bald, nude chunky Asian women constructed with hand building techniques. They are colored with slips and oxides, bisque-fired, hand-sanded, and colored further with rubbed-in and airbrushed oxides. Then they are fired to cone 5-6 oxidation and sanded one last time.

She received a Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation Purchase Award, 2001, and an Individual Artist Fellowship Award from the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, 1995.

She is a studio artist represented in galleries in Hawaii, California, Chicago and Switzerland and has taught workshops at Penland, Anderson Ranch, Santa Fe Clay, Emily Carr Institute, The Clay Studio/Missoula, Idyllwild Arts, The Honolulu Museum, Hawaii Potters’ Guild and The Holualoa Foundation for Arts and Culture among others.  She lives in Kailua, Oahu and has been stuck on clay since age 5.

 www.esthershimazu.com

Collections
Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts
Persis Corporation, Honolulu 
The Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu 
The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu 
Thurston and Sharon Twigg-Smith, Honolulu 
Evelyn Twigg-Smith, Honolulu 
Judith Schwartz, New York 
James and Priscilla Growney, Honolulu
Grand Wailea Hotel and Spa, Wailea, HI 
First Hawaiian Bank 
Morgan Flagg, Atherton, CA 
Fresno Art Museum, Fresno, CA 
St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO 
Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA 
Helen Drutt English, Philadelphia, PA 
Kutani Collection, Kanazawa, Japan
David and Nancy Wolf, Cincinnati, OH

Work in Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago IL; Napua Gallery, Wailea, Maui; Xen Gallery, St. Louis, MO2005 - 2007 member, Board of Directors, Hawaii Craftsmen, Honolulu, HI

Education:
1977 - 82 University of Massachusetts/Amherst, BFA 1980, MFA 1982
1974 - 77 University of Hawaii/Manoa, fine arts/ ceramics major

Teaching:
Spring session, Honolulu Academy of Arts; Summer session, Hawaii Potters' Guild

Past Workshops:
Donkey Mill Art Center, Holualoa, Hawaii 
Hui No’eau, Makawao. Maui 
Gift House, Hanalei, Kauai 
San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA
McHenry County College, Crystal Lake, IL
Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 
Emily Carr Institute, Vancouver, BC 
Sierra Nevada College, Incline Village, NV University of Wisconsin/Parkside, Kenosha, WI 
College of Marin, Kentfield, CA
Tulsa Artists Coalition, Tulsa, OK 
Leeward Community College, Pearl City, HI University of Hawaii/Manoa, Honolulu, HI 
Hilo Community College, Hilo, HI