/Museums
Kay Sekimachi: Ingenuity and Imagination
Jun 05 - Sep 07, 2025
Thursday through Friday 1 pm to 5 pm, and Saturday through Sunday, 11 am to 5 pm, and on the First Friday of each month, from 6 pm to 9 pm. On First Fridays, Museum admission is free to everyone.
408-971-0323
Event WebsiteAbout
Kay Sekimachi learned to make origami figures and to paint and draw while in an incarceration camp for Japanese Americans during World War II. She enrolled at the California College of Arts and Crafts in 1946, spent two summers at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine, and by 1949 was weaving large, complex wall hangings. In the late 1970s, Sekimachi began to create small pots and bowls that combine Japanese paper with materials left over from her weaving.
SF/Arts Curator Insight
More than 40 works, drawing largely on Berkeley collector Forrest L. Merrill’s trove, showcase the virtuosity of fiber artist and weaver Kay Sekimachi, who was born in San Francisco in 1926. Among the standouts: “Ogawa II” (1969), an ethereal sculpture composed of nylon monofilament, glass beads and plastic tubing that brought her international acclaim. Running simultaneously, the museum’s “Virginia Davis: Art and Illusion” exhibition centers on the late master weaver.
Anh-Minh Le
Contributing Writer
San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles