Bio

Born in Tokyo, Japan in 1967, Naoe Suzuki is a Japanese American visual artist whose work explores the theme of water and the environment. She works primarily with drawing and practices community-engagement work about our relationships with water. Her work often employs language and looks at the interconnectedness of our world, inviting viewers to reflect on our lifestyles, histories, relationships, and the legacy of colonialism to our environment.

Suzuki was awarded grants from Massachusetts Cultural Council (2022, 2006 & 2001,) Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Puffin Foundation (2023 & 2013), and Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation (2013 & 2004.) Her residency fellowships include Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, Blue Mountain Center, MacDowell, Millay Colony for the Arts, Jentel, Studios at MASS MoCA, and Tokyo Wonder Site in Japan. Suzuki was an Artist-in-Residence at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in 2016–2017. She received an MFA in Studio for Interrelated Media from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 1997. In addition to drawing, her practices include video, photography, letterpress printing, installation, and movement.

Suzuki lives and creates work in Waltham, Massachusetts, located on the traditional and ancestral land of the Massachusett, where the land has been inhibited and cared for by the Massachusett Tribe for thousands of years.

Dancing is an important part of her life and she practices Gaga movement language every day. She also dances together with her 87-year-old parents on Zoom almost every night which she started during the pandemic. She enjoys walking by Quinobequin (now known as Charles River) and swimming in Walden Pond during the summer.