Exhibit Description
Chieko Murasugi is an abstract artist who employs personal symbols, illusory forms, and irrational spaces to address questions about history, identity, and the notion of personal agency. Her current series, titled “In Loving Memory,” is a tribute to her late mother, Yasue Murasugi, who died on May 31, 2022 at the age of 92. In intuitive, process-driven paintings, Chieko reflects upon Yasue’s long life encompassing wartime traumas, immigration, and roles as wife, mother, grandmother, and artist. Chieko’s works are expressions of both grief and celebration: sorrow at the loss of her mother and of the ravaged world she left behind, and gratitude for her gifts of life, love, and art.
Artist Biography
Chieko Murasugi was born in Tokyo, grew up in Toronto, and lived in San Francisco for 20 years before relocating to Chapel Hill, NC in 2012. She has graduate degrees in Experimental Psychology, specializing in Visual Perception (PhD, York U), and in Studio Art (MFA, UNC-CH). Her paintings and mixed media works have been exhibited nationally in venues including Greenhill, and the Ackland, Wiregrass, Weatherspoon, Spartanburg, and Mint Museums. Collections include Duke University and the cities of Raleigh and Durham. She is a co-founder and co-curator of BASEMENT, an artist-run project space in Chapel Hill.
