Keiko Watanabe

Keiko Watanabe is a Japanese-American fiber artist and ceramicist based in Honolulu, Hawai'i. Her work draws from the intersection of Japanese textile arts — shibori, sashiko, and natural indigo dyeing — and the material culture of the Hawaiian Islands. Watanabe creates hand-dyed indigo textiles and raku-fired ceramic vessels, finding formal and conceptual connections between the two practices. The unpredictable results of indigo vat dyeing and raku firing share a surrender to process that is central to her work. She holds an MFA from the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has been exhibited at the Honolulu Museum of Art, the Japanese American National Museum, and the Textile Center Minneapolis.