--- title: Erica Isomura description: "multi-disciplinary artist-writer with a focus on land-based & critical diasporic knowledge" url: "https://www.artsume.com/a/ericahiroko" type: artist createdAt: 2026-02-26 updatedAt: 2026-04-14 disciplines: - Mixed Media - Book Arts - Creative Writing - Collage - Community Arts location: "Toronto, ON, Canada" birthYear: 1991 --- # Erica Isomura *multi-disciplinary artist-writer with a focus on land-based & critical diasporic knowledge | Mixed Media, Book Arts, Creative Writing, Collage, Community Arts | Based in Toronto, ON, Canada* ## Artist Statement For most of my life, my father did not talk about our Japanese internment history which led to loss of home, livelihood, language, and culture. This fracture influences my artistic practice, which explores issues of land, politics, time, and multigenerational Japanese- and Chinese-diasporic identity through an interdisciplinary approach. Whether through drawing, printmaking, paper art, collage, mixed-media, poetry, or prose writing, my work reimagines familial archives by collating and remixing scrap materials to produce something new. Despite the lingering effects of dispossession, my art reclaims narrative by permeating gaps within history. I often use mixed-media to juxtapose image and text, whether poetry and prose, images of plant life, prints, maps, and fragmented legal documents. I assert history’s living nature by inserting my voice into historical events. As I move towards the future, I carry history with me and through my storytelling. My work incorporates west coast ethnobotanical knowledge and aquatic motifs, influenced by my upbringing on the west coast and my Environmental Studies background. The tactile nature of harvesting, printmaking, drawing, and collaging invokes a sense of curiosity and playfulness in my practice, while simultaneously deepening my relationship to place. During my undergraduate studies, I was particularly interested in political ecology and the ethics of ethnoecological studies, which informs how I approach my eco-arts practice, whether working directly with botanical materials or engaging with land and waterways. Oftentimes, aesthetics of beauty, nature, and conservation are used to veil historical displacement. With regards to this, feelings of conflict emerge throughout the work. My practice meditates on questions about alternative ways of conceptualizing land without seeking to provide answers. It asks viewers to consider their own relationships to land, space, time, and familial inheritance. ## Biography Erica H Isomura is an artist-writer whose work is rooted in community. She was born beside the Sto:lo, and raised by a Chinese Canadian mom and sansei dad. Erica's work is published in BRICK (issue 117), The Gate of Memory anthology (Haymarket Books, 2025), Ruth Beer: SEEP|SWELL (Burnaby Art Gallery, 2025), and elsewhere. Erica was the 2023 artist-in-residence at The Blue Cabin Floating Artist Residency. Erica earned an M.F.A. in Creative Writing at the University of Guelph. ## Curriculum Vitae ### Education - **2024** - MFA, in Creative Writing, University of Guelph, Guelph - **2015** - BA, in Social Sciences, minors in Environmental & Indigenous studies, University of Victoria, Victoria, (Cum Laude) ### Group Exhibitions - **2026** - "Time," Gallery 1065 Toronto (Curated by Amy Rogers & Melissa Fisher-Rozenburg) - **2025** - "Pride in Print," Someone Editions Toronto (Curated by Agata Plocinksi) ### Residencies - **2023** - The Blue Cabin Floating Artist Residency, Richmond - **2022** - Deer Lake Artist Residency, Burnaby - **2021** - Poetry, Politics, and Embodiment, Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff ### Publications - **2025** - "Two poems," *The Gate of Memory* ed. Brynn Saito & Brandon Shimoda - **2025** - "Swimming Upstream against (Neo)colonialism: On Salmon Aquaculture Supremacy and the Decline of Sockeye in the Stó:lo," *The RAVEN Essays* ed. John Borrows, Dawn Hoogeveen, Max Ritts, and Sue Smitten - **2025** - "Spring rain is as precious as oil (春雨贵如油)," *Ruth Beer: SEEP | SWELL* ed. Burnaby Art Gallery - **2025** - "Sifting," *Canthius, issue 13* - **2025** - " vessel for the past / a vessel for the future," *Discover Nikkei* ed. traci kato-kirayama - **2025** - "Haibun for February 19," *Discover Nikkei* ed. traci kato-kirayama - **2023** - "Three poems," *ArtsEverywhere.ca* - **2022** - "Pink + Green," *ROOM, 43.2* ed. Jessica Johns - **2022** - "re: birth," *The Fiddlehead, no. 290* ed. Rebecca Salazar and Phoebe Wang - **2021** - "Lessons For Future Ancestors," *ROOM, online* ed. Isabella Wang - **2021** - "MOTION," *Vallum: Contemporary Poetry* - **2021** - "A JC cento, or why does silence become a shard?," *carte blanche, issue 41* ed. Marcella Huerta - **2021** - "i decay, bro," *The Maynard* ed. Jamie Macarty - **2018** - "Traditional medicine," *Poetry is Dead, issue 17 * ed. Adele Barclay & Leah Horlick - **2018** - "FOR THE DREAMERS," *Briarpatch Magazine* ed. Saima Desai ## Portfolio ### Family History (2025) *Artist book* *8.5 x 7.25 x 2 inches* Family history, 2025 tunnel book, 8.5 x 7.25 x 2 inches edition of 1 Background photo of Pender Street shopfronts is from the City of Vancouver Archives, COV-S511: CVA 780-447. --- ### Mapping Unknown Futures (2025) *Artist Book* *9.5 x 12cm* mapping unknown futures, 2025 mixed-media artist book, 9.5 x 12cm edition of 1 --- ### How Does It Move In Time? (2025) *Collage* *12.5 x 20 cm* Mixed media collage on cardboard --- ### Mini Collage series (2025) *Collage/Decoupage on handbound notebooks* *9.5x12.5 cm* Small collage works, decoupage on handbound notebooks --- ### A vessel for the past/future (2024) *Zine* *3.75 x 4 inches* A vessel for the past / a vessel for the future, 2024 2-colour risograph, 3.75 x 4 inches edition of 50 --- ### Family history (2024) *Artist book* *5.25 x 9.25 inches (closed)* Family history, 2024 mixed media, 5.25 x 9.25 inches edition of 1 --- ### Mouse House (2024) *Artist Book* *3 x 3 x 1.5 centimetres* Mouse House, 2024 watercolour and ink on paper, 3 x 3 x 1.5 centimetres edition of 1 --- ### Talking with all the lonely trees (2024) *Artist Book* *10.5 x 35.5 inches (closed)* Talking with all the lonely trees, 2024 Two-sided accordion book, mixed media, 10.5 x 35.5 inches edition of 1