Chieko Murasugi (she/her) was born in Tokyo, raised in Toronto, and based in San Francisco for 20 years before moving to North Carolina in 2012. She has degrees in Experimental Psychology (BA McGill, Ph.D. York U) with a specialization in Visual Perception, and in Studio Art (BFA York U, MFA UNC-Chapel Hill). She has exhibited her work nationally in galleries and museums, and her paintings reside in the public collections of the City of Raleigh, Durham, and Duke University. She is a co-founder and co-curator of BASEMENT, an artist collective that promotes experimental works by artists with roots in the American Southeast.
Through my paintings, mixed media, and textile works I investigate the forces that shape an individual’s beliefs and identity. I explore how chance, history, and the perception of current stimuli contributes to one’s sense of self. These influences are visually depicted by employing digitally assisted randomization, evocative materials, personal symbols, and visual illusions.
Chance, accessed through randomization, has a profound effect on events, and therefore identities, beginning with the circumstances of one’s birth. My practice also addresses history’s role, with mine encompassing samurai culture, and the generational traumas of WWII and the Japanese diaspora. I speak to the complexities of perception by using visual illusions and references to contemporary issues. There are among the many factors that interact alchemically to create the individual human’s rich psychology.