Bio

C.K.Itamura is a Yonsei, Nikkei interdisciplinary artist based in California. Her conceptual, visual, performance and community engagement art serve to engage intergenerational audiences in the exploration of observation, contemplation and expressive imagination.

C.K. is a recipient of the Discovered Awards for Emerging Visual Artists made possible, in part, by Creative Sonoma and Community Foundation Sonoma County. Her essay Circuitous Paths of the Yonsei was commissioned and published by Write Now! SF Bay and included in the anthology Uncommon Ground: BIPOC Journeys to Creative Activism. Her Covers: A Pandemic-Endmic Era Project was published in the inaugural issue of Hunger Button Book’s Entanglements. Her work was also included in Write Now! SF Bay’s Essential Truths anthology and Talking To Strangers publications. The artwork she created for Conrad Praetzel’s Adventures Into Somethingness was chosen by A Closer Listen as one of the Year’s 10 Best Album Covers for 2022.

C.K. is: the founder and publisher of Kanreki Press; the editor of Chottohon magazine; the creator of Collab Arts Lab, a program of Berkeley Commonplace; a co-founder of Book Arts Roadshow; an artist/director on the board of Berkeley Commonplace; an Advisory Committee Member of Write Now! SF Bay; and a former director of San Francisco Center for the Book. She has served in directorial, managerial and/or production roles for live theatrical performances, live events, concerts and festivals, radio shows and video productions.

C.K. is an Artist-in-Residence of San Francisco Unified School District Library Department and San Francisco Arts Education Project, and works with San Francisco Public Library, Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Mateo County Libraries, San Mateo County Office of Education and South San Francisco Unified School District via Young Audiences of Northern California, Youth Art Exchange and others to create and provide: professional development workshops for educators; hands-on art-making workshops for students; and to make art-making accessible to the general public.

Artist Statement

“People sitting in different vehicles will experience the same traffic jam in different ways: one may miss a flight and be apprehensive of the rescheduling they need to do; one may be late for school and be worried they will miss a lesson; one may spend time listening to the news; one may need to use a restroom and be experiencing physical discomfort; one may spend the time musing about someone they love. Each individual will have their own personal interaction with the same traffic jam and they will derive their own narrative about it. The traffic jam is art.” — C.K.Itamura