Nishiki Sugawara-Beda

Art

Associate Professor of Art
Painting and Drawing
Director of Graduate Studies
Recipient: 2023-2024 President's Associates Award

Email

nishikis@smu.edu

Website

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Nishiki Sugawara-Beda is a Japanese-American visual artist specializing in painting and installation. She actively exhibits her work in solo and group exhibitions and offers lectures nationally and internationally to promote cultural diversity and exchange. She draws upon her Japanese heritage to explore themes related to culture, language, and spirituality rooted in Zen Buddhism. Connecting across space and time, she experiments in ancient Japanese materials and techniques including Sumi ink, Kakejiku landscapes, and rice paper, to merge them with abstract and expressive forms familiar to the modern Western aesthetic.

Her works are in private and public collections including the Dallas Museum of Art (TX) and the Dennos Museum (MI). Exhibition venues include the Spartanburg Art Museum (SC), Morris Graves Museum of Art (CA), Dennos Museum (MI), (NY), Hollis Taggart (NY) and Cris Worley Fine Arts (TX). Publications include New American Paintings, AEQAI, , London Post, Art Spiel and WhiteHot. Awards including a Seed Grant, Diversity Fellowship, International Enhancement Grant, Idaho Arts Fellowship, Sam Taylor Fellowship, Residency, and the Dallas Museum of Art’s Otis and Velma Davis Dozier Travel Fund have supported her artistic research. She is represented by Cris Worley Fine Art in Dallas, TX.

In addition to national conferences, including the College Art Association, Sugawara-Beda also gives keynote speeches and workshops to cultural organizations including Pilipino American Unity for Progress, Inc., OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates, and Business Council for the Arts, Dallas.

, a full-color art book surveying her work from 2012 to 2020, is being published by Execute Magazine in 2021.

Education

B.A., Portland State University
M.F.A., Indiana University

Recent Work

Recent Bibliography

Maxwell Rabb. “5 Standout Shows to See at Small Galleries This March.” Artsy, March 15, 2024.

Amara Asrawi. “SMU professor paints with purpose, honors Japanese American roots.” The Daily Campus, May 14, 2023.

Steve Carter. “In Glorious Black and White.” Patron Magazine, October-November, 2022.

Emily Hopcian. “A Making Place.” Traverse Magazine, September, 2022.

Laura Horne. “.” Tussle Magazine, April 17, 2022.

Jonathan Goodman. “.” Tussle Magazine, March 30, 2022.

Simonetta Moro. “.” March 19, 2022.

Maggie Pavao. “.” Art Spiel, March 10, 2022.

Vittoria Benzine. “," the first NYC solo show by Dallas-based visual artist Nishiki Sugawara-Beda.” WhiteHot Magazine, February 28, 2022.

Rachel L. Hausmann Schall. “.” Sixty Inches From Center, September 17, 2021.

“,” ANTE Magazine, April 9, 2021.

Dr. Robert E. Gordon. “.” Review of Zero at Home, by Nishiki Sugawara-Beda. Athenaeum Review, University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, TX. Winter issue, 2021.

Gallery affiliation:

, Dallas, TX
, Brooklyn, NY

Course list

Painting  
Drawing  
Observation (Foundation)  
Graduate Seminar  
Nishiki Sugawara-Beda