REDONDO BEACH — “Pilgrimage to Concentration Camp Where Our Parents Were Imprisoned During WWII” (2023, 40″x60″x1.5″, oil on canvas) will be in the Last CA 101 Juried Exhibition.
Opening reception is on Friday, Aug. 25, from 6 to 9 p.m. at the historic Redondo Beach Library, 309 Esplanade, Redondo Beach. It is free and open to the public.
The diptych of documentary filmmaker Steven Toll Okazaki and artist Eileen Oda will be shown in the main lobby. It shows the mountain ranges behind where Oda’s parents and Okazaki’s father were imprisoned during World War II. Okazaki stands before Heart Mountain and Oda stands in front of the mountain range at Tule Lake.
Okazaki and Oda were classmates at Venice High School. where they were voted “Most Artistic” by their graduating class. He went on to become a four-time Oscar nominee and one-time Oscar winner, among many other awards.
“His body of work has influenced and given me the courage to finally create art that advances understanding of what happened to over 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II,” said Oda, who is grateful for this opportunity to show her paintings.
Okazaki is known for his raw, cinéma vérité-style documentaries that frequently show ordinary people dealing with extraordinary circumstances, including survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He has received a Peabody Award and a Primetime Emmy in addition to the Academy Award, which he won for “Days of Waiting: The Life and Art of Estelle Ishigo.” Ishigo was a Caucasian artist who accompanied her Japanese American husband to Heart Mountain and documented the camp experience.
For more information on the event, email cre8art2001@aol.com.