A native of Seattle, Washington, Roger Shimomura spent two early years of his childhood in Minidoka, one of 10 concentration camps for Japanese Americans during WWII. His works primarily address sociopolitical issues of ethnicity. He has had over 150 solo exhibitions of his paintings and prints. He began teaching at the University of Kansas in 1969. Shimomura is a past winner of the Kansas Governor's Arts Award, and in 2008, he was designated the first Kansas Master Artist. Shimomura is in the permanent collection of over 100 museums nationwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art the National Portrait Gallery & Smithsonian American Art Museum.
