Artwork copyright Tomie Arai. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Artwork copyright Tomie Arai. Photo courtesy of the artist, 1991.

Artwork copyright Tomie Arai. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission.

Yearning, 1991

Tomie Arai
(American, born 1949)

Location: Hawthorne Elementary, Seattle

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Artist Tomie Arai creates artworks influenced by her Japanese heritage and its impact on personal identity and cultural equity. The six diverse portraits of Yearning evoke interconnectedness and longing.

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Seattle School District.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Tomie Arai is a public artist, printmaker, and community activist. She creates site-specific art that deals with topics of community, racial identity, and gender. Her works are influenced by her Japanese heritage and the urban experience of being a lifelong New Yorker. She notes, "Through the use of family stories, shared memories, and archival photographs, I construct pages of 'living history' that reflect the layered and complex narratives that give meaning to the places we live in."

Arai co-founded the Chinatown Art Brigade, a New York City-based collective of artists, media makers, and activists creating art and media to advance social justice and fight inequities. Her art has been exhibited nationally and is in the collections of the Library of Congress, the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City, and more.