About

I work with stories that risk erasure and the people they originate from. My work is rooted in ancestral histories from the Okinawan and Afro-Atlantic diaspora. From these origins, I expand with a transnational and interdisciplinary approach to investigate hybrid experiences of occupation and migration. Through installation, sculpture, public works, drawings, text, video and performance I trace their impacts on local and global communities. I often collaborate with communities in which a work will stand, sharing authorship and engaging in group making and conversation though workshops. My works are often colorful, and remix recognizable everyday materials as an entry point for viewers. Beads, chainlink fencing, fabrics, watercolor, spoken word and interactive performance are combined to offer layered encounters. As an artist and educator who’s practice intersects multi-sensory approaches, narrative history and community engagement, I amplify stories that need visibility while inviting audiences to interact, relate and contribute.

- Updated Feb, 2025
Bio:
Aya Rodriguez-Izumi is an interdisciplinary artist and educator whose work blends sculpture, installation, performance, community engagement and documentation to explore aspects of ritual retention, cross-cultural identity and histories that risk erasure. She was born in Okinawa, Japan, and grew up between that island and East Harlem, NY, where she currently holds a studio. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in venues such as El Museo del Barrio, MoCADA, the NUS Museum in Singapore, the International House of Japan in Tokyo, the Taipei Fine Art Museum, The Aldrich Museum, and The Children’s Museum of Manhattan among others. She was a recipient of the A.I.R. Gallery Fellowship in New York, a Jerome Foundation Fellowship at Franconia Sculpture Park in Minnesota, the JUSFC Creative Artist Fellowship, the Annual Artist fellowship at Socrates Sculpture Park, the Artist Alliance Inc x District 1 in-school residency program in New York, and represented Okinawa and the United States in the 2021 Benizakura Art Annual in Hokkaido, the 2023 Romantic Route 3 Triennial in Taiwan, and the 2024-35 Yanbaru Art Festival in Okinawa. She earned a BFA in Fine Arts from Parsons the New School for Design and an MFA in Fine Arts from The School of Visuals Arts. Aya centers community building in her practice and work and brings this sensibility to her teaching in SVA's MFA Fine Art Department and at the Studio Museum in Harlem, as well as her work as a board member at the historic feminist artist run A.I.R. Gallery.