Mitsuko Brooks
ミ津子 (Mitsuko) Brooks is a Shin-Issei Japanese American artist born during snowfall in Aomori Prefecture of Japan on Misawa Air Force Base, and grew up in Dover, Delaware; Albany, Oregon; Aviano, Italy; Gaithersburg, Maryland; and New York City. Her grandparents are from Ibaraki Prefecture in Japan and Virginia in the states, and parents born in Manchuria, China and Mount Joy, Pennsylvania. ミ津子 received her BFA from Cooper Union, MFA in Painting & Drawing from UCLA and attended The Oxbow School. She is a member of asian mamas in the arts (amwa), Asian American Women Artist Association (AAWAA) and The Asian Diasporic Network. She completed artist residencies at Queen’s Museum’s Set on Freedom, The Wassaic Project, The School of Making Thinking, and The Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden. ミ津子 was awarded The Common Field-Field Grant, The Sally Van Der Lier Fellowship, the Artists’ Fellowship, Inc., The Bette Midler Scholarship and The Resnick Grant to note a few. She has exhibited at Smack Mellon, Steve Turner, SFAI, SOMArts, and The New Wight Gallery. Brooks’ artist book, zines and mail art are in permanent collections at Smithsonian’s Archive of American Art, Artexte Information Centre, Barnard College Library, Otis College Library, UCLA Arts Library, Cooper Union Library, Asian Art Archive in America, and Los Angeles Contemporary Archive. Embedded in her family tree, with two generations of colonialism; her life and work are acts to defy against domination and exploitation. ミ津子 is vastly interested in the mundane and fragile fleeting moments of everyday life and the human condition. She recently moved from Little Tokyo to Ridgewood, Queens.