Sculptor - Joseph Goto (1916–1994) Hilo, Hawaii born. Steel was his medium and welding was his means.

He came from a lineage of economic migrants who left rural poverty in Japan in pursuit of a better quality of life. In Hawai’i they worked in sugar cane fields as indentured labor. At the age of 4 - Joe’s mother was swept away along with their entire village by a tsunami. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor he abruptly relocated to Chicago to study - fleeing martial law and the threat of internment. He translated his skill of welding - learned while working as a civilian for the Army Engineers into a life long artistic practice. In 1952 (10 years after first learning to weld) while enrolled as a student at The Art Institute of Chicago his sculpture : “Organic Form’ was acquired by MoMa launching a career which spanned over 40 years - during which he built a language informed by organic growth and the natural forces which organize creation.

Goto's sculptures range from table-top size to large outdoor public pieces and have been featured in historical exhibitions at notable museums—including :

Selected Solo Exhibitions :Ken Studios, Chicago, IL 1953, Allan Frumkin Gallery, Chicago, IL and New York, NY 1956, 1959, 1960, 1962, 1963, Stephen Radich, New York, NY 1964, 1965, 1966, Museum of the Arts, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI Joseph Goto, 1971

Honolulu Academy of the Arts, Honolulu, HI Sculpture & Drawing Exhibition, 1973, Art Center of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI Painting Exhibition, 1973, Zabriskie Gallery, New York, NY, Sculpture & Drawing Exhibition, 1973, Selected Group Shows, Sindin Gallery, New York, NY Byron & Joseph Goto: Drawings & Sculptures, 1981, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

Circulating Exhibition, Nine Artists from Chicago, 1961, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, 1954 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Sculpture, Watercolors and Drawings, 1954 , 1955 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Paintings, Sculpture, Watercolors and Drawings, 1955, Annual Exhibition 1960: Contemporary Sculpture and Drawings, 1960, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago IL, Annual Chicago and Vicinity Exhibition, 1951, 52, 54, 55, 56, 57, 59, Chicago Artists, 1957, Two Centuries of American Art, 1750-1790, 1959, American Artists, 1959-60, Directions in Contemporary Painting and Sculpture, 1963, Visions: Painting and Sculpture: Distinguished Alumni, 1945 to Present, 1976, 100 Artists/ 100 Years/ Alumni of the School of the Art Institute Chicago, 1979-80, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA, Landscape, 1968, Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Arts, 1970, The Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, Centenary Year Exhibition, London, EN, 1972, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI, Annual Exhibition of Michigan Artists, 1963, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC, The Koffler Foundation Collection, 1977, American Drawing III, 1980, Canton Art Institute, Canton, OH, Sculpture Exhibition, 1975,  Honolulu Japanese Chamber of Commerce, Honolulu, HI, Japanese Artist in Hawaii, 1978, Virginia Lynch Gallery, Tiverton, RI, Drawings, 1992, Sculpture Center, New York, NY, Twelve Japanese Sculptors, 1976, Japanese Sculptor Exhibition, 1979, Azuma Gallery, New York, NY, Half Century of Japanese Artists in N.Y. 1910-1950, 1977, Anyart Gallery, Providence, RI, Drawing Exhibition, 1981, American Academy of Arts and Letters, Paintings and Sculptures by Candidates for Art Awards, 1985, Temporary Sculpture Placement , Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY; Neuberger Museum, Purchase, NY; Denver Museum, Denver, CO ; St. Bartholomew Church, New York, NY, 1981; Virginia Museum, Richmond, VA; Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR; Scottsdale Art Center, Scottsdale, AZ, Contemporary Art Museum, Houston TX ; Portsmouth Community Center, Portsmouth, VA, Paramus Outdoor Exhibit, Paramus, NJ; Storm King Art Center, Storm King, NY; Lincoln Center, New York, NY; Fujii Bank & Trust, New York, NY; John Herron Museum of Art (Jury), Indianapolis, IN; Hartford Museum, Hartford, CT; Mayor’s City Celebration Exhibition,Providence, RI; Udine Project, Udine, Italy; Royal Palm Gallery, Palm Springs, Florida, 1981; To Welcome T.M. The Emperor and Empress of Japan, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1975; Battersea Park, London, EN, Ford Program for Visual Arts, Finals Exhibition, 1959; Grey Art Gallery, New York University, NY, 1976

Permanent Collections :

The Art Institute of Chicago, the Butler Institute of American Art (Youngstown, OH), Carnegie Museum of Art (Pittsburgh, PN) The Honolulu Museum of Art, the Kresge Art Museum (East Lansing, MI), the Museum of Modern Art (NY, NY), The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, MO), The RISD Museum (Providence, RI), Falling Waters by Frank Lloyd Wright (Mill Run, PA) and Hartwood Acres Sculpture Garden (Pittsburgh, PA)

Upcoming - Spring 2027 :

The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA)

Afterlives: Japanese American Artists and the Postwar Era

JULY 9 - OCTOBER 2, 2022

The Walker Art Gallery - HARLEM, NY

Dead Lecturer / distant relative: Notes from the Woodshed, 1950-1980

the Noguchi Museum - LIC, NY:

No Monument : In the Wake of the Japanese American Incarceration

March 16, 2022 – May 15, 2022

Professional Experience

Richmond Professional Institute, College of William & Mary, Richmond, VA

Assistant Professor of Art, 1958-59

University of Michigan, College of Architecture and Design, Ann Arbor, MI

Assistant Professor of Art, 1959-1963

Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI

Assistant Professor of Art, 1963-65

University of Illinois, Chicago Campus, Chicago, IL

Visiting Professor, 1965

Tower Iron Works, Inc., Seekonk, MA

Resident Artist & Welder 1966-1969

Andrew Mellon Professor of Sculpture, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA

Visiting Professor, 1968

Bernice and Maurice Saltzman, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA

Visiting Professor, 1970