20 Facts About Wendy Maruyama

Wendy Maruyama's work uses humor, social commentary, sculptural forms, and color to challenge the accepted notions of furniture.

Wendy Maruyama served as the head of the Furniture Design department at San Diego State University for 25 years.

Wendy Maruyama is a third generation Japanese-American living in San Diego.

Wendy Maruyama was born deaf in both ears and has worn a hearing aid since the age of nine.

Wendy Maruyama studied woodworking at San Diego State University, where she received her BA in 1975.

Wendy Maruyama then studied woodworking at the Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia.

Wendy Maruyama transferred to Boston University's Program in Artistry from 1976 to 1978, where she studied under Alphonse Mattia and Jere Osgood.

Wendy Maruyama taught at the Appalachian Center for Crafts in Smithville, Tennessee, from 1980 to 1985, and served as head of the woodworking and furniture design program from 1982 to 1985.

Wendy Maruyama then went on to work as the head of woodworking and furniture design at California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California, from 1985 to 1989.

Wendy Maruyama has taught workshops at craft schools including Penland School of Crafts in Penland, North Carolina, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, in Deer Isle, Maine and Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, Colorado.

Wendy Maruyama felt restricted by this type of highly technical furniture, and set out to make more expressive works during her time studying at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Later in the 1980s, Wendy Maruyama entered what she describes as a "white period", of "post-nuclear primitive", as an opposition to nuclear testing.

Wendy Maruyama's work is included in permanent collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Dallas Museum of Art, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston, Australia; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Museum of Arts and Design, New York; Mint Museum of Art, North Carolina; Fuller Craft Museum, Massachusetts; Mingei International Museum, California; and the Oakland Museum of California.

Wendy Maruyama had held a studio space in the Glashaus in Barrio Logan in San Diego for many years, until 2017 when the building was sold and renovated.

Wendy Maruyama has served as a member of the advisory of the Furniture Society.

Wendy Maruyama's work, Patterned Credenza, was acquired by the Smithsonian American Art Museum as part of the Renwick Gallery's 50th Anniversary Campaign.

Wendy Maruyama's series titled "WildLife Project" was inspired by a trip to Kenya where she met with wildlife advocates to learn more about the dangers of poaching animals.

The series was started while Wendy Maruyama was a resident artist at the Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, Washington in 2013.

Wendy Maruyama: Executive Order 9066 is a series of works by Maruyama examining Franklin D Roosevelt's 1942 Executive Order number 9066 which authorized the internment of 120,000 American citizens of Japanese ancestry.

Wendy Maruyama has held solo exhibitions in New York City; San Francisco; Scottsdale, Arizona; Indianapolis, Indiana; Savannah Georgia; and Easthampton, New York.