Pictures of Belonging: Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo
Pictures of Belonging: Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo
Rediscover the work of three trailblazing women—Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo—in Pictures of Belonging: Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo. This exhibition reveals a broader picture of the American experience through artworks and life stories of three Japanese American women from the pre–World War II generation, seen together for the first time. With more than eighty paintings and drawings by Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo, this exhibition spans eight decades and reveals both the range and depth of these artists’ oeuvres and connections that have not been explored previously.
Curated by Dr. ShiPu Wang, the Coats Family Chair in the Arts and Professor of Art History, Department of Global Arts, Media, and Writing Studies in the School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts at the University of California, Merced, and commissioner of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Pictures of Belonging is traveling to four venues across the US before its final stop at JANM in late 2026. By taking the exhibition to locations that are connected with the artists’ histories—such as Utah where Hibi and Okubo were incarcerated, and California where all three artists regularly exhibited in the pre-war period—Pictures of Belonging leverages the power of place to create public programming opportunities tailored to local residents and histories.
Pictures of Belonging: Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo is made possible through support from the Terra Foundation for American Art. In addition, this project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Check the Venues page to see where the exhibition is traveling.
Top image (cropped): Hisako Hibi, Eastern Sky 7:50 A.M., Feb. 25, 1945, Oil on canvas, 21 3/4 × 17 1/2 in. Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles, Gift of Ibuki Hibi Lee, 96.601.47
Artwork by Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo
Hisako Hibi, Study for a Self-Portrait, ca. 1944, Oil on canvas, 21-3/4 × 17-1/2 in.
Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles, Gift of Ibuki Hibi Lee, 99.63.1
Hisako Hibi, Eastern Sky 7:50 A.M., Feb. 25, 1945, Oil on canvas, 21-3/4 x 17-1/2 in.
Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles, Gift of Ibuki Hibi Lee, 96.601.47
Hisako Hibi, Autumn, 1970. Oil on Canvas, 38 1_2 x 31 1_2 in.
Courtesy of Smithsonian American Art Museum
Miné Okubo, Portrait Study, ca. 1937, Tempera on panel, 23-1/2 x 19-1/2 in.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum Purchase. © The Miné Okubo Charitable Corporation. Photo by Lucia RM Martino. Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Miné Okubo, Wind and Dust, 1943, Opaque watercolor on paperboard, 19 x 24 in.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum Purchase. © The Miné Okubo Charitable Corporation. Photo by Lucia RM Martino. Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Miné Okubo, Boy, Goat, Fruit, before 1972, Acrylic on canvas, 60 × 51 in.
Riverside City College, Gift of the Miné Okubo Estate, Riverside, California, 2016.1.34, Photo by Tom Callas
Miki Hayakawa, Portrait of a Negro, 1926, Oil on canvas, 26 × 20 in. (66.04 × 50.8 cm); frame, 36 × 291/2 × 4 in. (91.44 × 74.93 × 10.16 cm).
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Purchased with funds provided by Mrs. James D. Macneil, M.2004.27.2. Photo © Museum Associates/LACMA
Miki Hayakawa, From My Window, 1935, Oil on canvas, 28 x 28 in.
Collection of Sandra and Bram Dijkstra on loan at the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, Pasadena, California
Miki Hayakawa, One Afternoon, ca. 1935, Oil on canvas, 40 x 40 in.
New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, Gift of Preston McCrossen in memory of his wife, the artist, 1954, 520.23P, Photo by Blair Clark