Pictures of Belonging: Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo at Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, DC)

Date: Nov. 5, 2024 – Aug. 17, 2025

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Rediscover the work of three trailblazing women—Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo—in Pictures of Belonging: Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo. This exhibition reveals a broader picture of the American experience through artworks and life stories of three Japanese American women from the pre–World War II generation, seen together for the first time. With more than eighty paintings and drawings by Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo, this exhibition spans eight decades and reveals both the range and depth of these artists’ oeuvres and connections that have not been explored previously.

Curated by Dr. ShiPu Wang, the Coats Family Chair in the Arts and Professor of Art History, Department of Global Arts, Media, and Writing Studies in the School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts at the University of California, Merced, and commissioner of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Pictures of Belonging is traveling to four venues across the US before its final stop at JANM in late 2026. By taking the exhibition to locations that are connected with the artists’ histories—such as Utah where Hibi and Okubo were incarcerated, and California where all three artists regularly exhibited in the pre-war period—Pictures of Belonging leverages the power of place to create public programming opportunities tailored to local residents and histories.

Pictures of Belonging: Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo is made possible through support from the Terra Foundation for American Art. In addition, this project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Top image (cropped): Hisako Hibi, Eastern Sky 7:50 A.M., Feb. 25, 1945, Oil on canvas, 21 3/4 × 17 1/2 in. Japanese American National Museum, Gift of Ibuki Hibi Lee, 96.601.47

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