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About the Artist

Makoto Fujimura is a leading contemporary artist whose process-driven, refractive “slow art” has been described by David Brooks of The New York Times as “a small rebellion against the quickening of time”. Fujimura's work has received critical recognition for over three decades. Artist and critic Robert Kushner wrote about Fujimura’s art in Art in America in the 90's: “The idea of forging a new kind of art, about hope, healing, redemption, refuge, while maintaining visual sophistication and intellectual integrity is a growing movement, one which finds Makoto Fujimura’s work at the vanguard.” His art displays an "imminent abstraction", placing itself "on the cusp of the real...where the mundane and intimate can be dreamed of and the metaphysical can approach the tangible" (Peter Frank, art critic and curator, 2020). His works are regularly exhibited in museums around the world.

Portrait of Makoto Fujimura in his studio with paintings in the background
Photo Credit: Windrider Productions


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Makoto Fujimura graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bucknell University, then studied in a traditional Japanese painting doctorate program for several years at Tokyo University of the Arts with several notable artists such as Takashi Murakami and Hiroshi Senju. His bicultural arts education led his style towards a fusion between fine art and abstract expressionism, together with the traditional Japanese art of Nihonga and Kacho-ga (bird-and-flower painting tradition). Fujimura’s art has been featured widely in galleries and museums around the world, and is collected by notable collections including The Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, The Huntington Library in California, and the Tikotin Museum in Israel. His art is represented by Artrue International in Asia and has been exhibited at various venues including the ARC Conference London, Pola Museum of Art, C3 North Bund Art Museum, Dillon Gallery, Morpeth Contemporary, Sato Museum, Tokyo University of the Arts Museum, Bentley Gallery, Gallery Exit, Oxford House at Taikoo Place, Belvedere Museum, Shusaku Endo Museum, Jundt Museum, Oak Hill & Martha Berry Museum, and the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art. He is one of the first artists to paint live on stage at New York City’s legendary Carnegie Hall as part of an ongoing collaboration with composer and percussionist, Susie Ibarra. Their collaborative album "Walking on Water" is released by Innova Records.

As well as being a leading contemporary painter, Fujimura is also an arts advocate, writer, and speaker who is recognized worldwide as a cultural influencer. A Presidential appointee to the National Council on the Arts from 2003-2009, Fujimura served as an international advocate for the arts, speaking with decision makers and advising governmental policies on the arts. His books Refractions (NavPress, rereleased in 2024 in a special 15th year Anniversary Edition) and Culture Care (IVPress) reflect many of his theses on arts advocacy written during that time. His books have won numerous awards, including the Aldersgate Prize for Silence and Beauty (IVPress). Fujimura's celebrated book Art+Faith: A Theology of Making (Yale University Press, with a foreword by N.T. Wright, 2021) has been described by poet Christian Wiman as "a real tonic for our atomized time." His second book with Yale University Press, Art Is: A Journey into the Light, is slated for a late 2025 release. Fujimura's books have been variously translated into Dutch, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, and Portuguese. In 2023 Fujimura wrote the afterword to Mark Rothko's book The Artist's Reality: Philosophies of Art at the personal request of the Rothko family. Fujimura continues his arts advocacy as a Trinity Forum Senior Fellow.

In 2011, Fujimura was commissioned by Crossway Publishers to illuminate the Four Holy Gospels for the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. Fujimura was the first single artist in over four centuries to be commissioned by a Bible publisher to hand-illuminate the whole volume. The project included five major frontispiece paintings, eighty-nine chapter letters, and illuminated pages throughout the volume. Fujimura's Four Holy Gospels paintings and original illuminated pages have been exhibited at museums around the world.

In 2014, the American Academy of Religion named Fujimura as its 2014 “Religion and the Arts” award recipient. This award is presented annually to professional artists who have made significant contributions to the relationship of art and religion, both for the academy and a broader public. Previous recipients of the award include Meredith Monk, Holland Cotter, Gary Snyder, Betye & Alison Saar and Bill Viola. Fujimura is also the recipient of the 2023 Kuyper Prize for Excellence in Reformed Theology and Public Life. Bucknell University honored Fujimura with the Outstanding Alumni Award in 2012. Fujimura has served on the board of Bucknell University since 2005.

In 1992, Fujimura founded the International Arts Movement (now IAMCultureCare), which initiatives include the Fujimura Institute. In 2011, the Fujimura Institute launched QU4RTETS, a collaboration between Fujimura, painter Bruce Herman, theologian/pianist Jeremy Begbie, and composer Christopher Theofanidis, based on T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets. The QU4RTETS exhibition has travelled to Baylor, Duke, Yale, Cambridge, Hiroshima City, and Hong Kong Universities and other institutions around the globe. 

Fujimura is a recipient of four Doctor of Arts Honorary Degrees: from Belhaven University in 2011, Biola University in 2012, Cairn University in 2014 and Roanoke College in 2015. His commencement addresses have received notable attention, one being selected by NPR as one of the 200 “Best Commencement Addresses Ever” and CNN as one of the top 16 "Greatest Commencement Speeches of all Time". His 2019 Commencement Address at Judson University entitled “Kintsugi Generation” laid out his cultural vision for the next generation.

Fujimura was a vision director of the Brehm Center at Fuller Theological Seminary. He established the Fujimura/Brehm Studio in Pasedena from 2012-2017 and created the Fujimura Fellows program which continues under the Fujimura Institute. Notable mentees of Fujimura includes Joyce Yu-Jean Lee, Julia Hendrickson, September Penn, Joey Tomassoni, Dea Jenkins, Yuki Yao, Andrew Roseberry, Jeremy Hunt, and Cindy Cortez.  He works now full time at his "Fuji Farm" studio north of Princeton, and established Estuary Gallery with his wife Haejin Shim Fujimura in Fort Lee, New Jersey. 

Fujimura serves as an Artist Advocate Counsel for Embers International to bring beauty into the darkest places of injustice. Fujimura and his wife Haejin are currently co-writing a book on the topic of "Beauty and Justice" to be published in 2026 by Brazos Press.

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