John Yoyogi Fortes

John Yoyogi Fortes is a painter whose work explores a physical and psychological landscape of self, culture, and identity through a bicultural lens.  His paintings are an obscure world of artistic styles, dark humor and word play.

John’s work has been exhibited throughout the U.S. as well as Hawaii, Venezuela, Japan, the Philippines and Norway.  His paintings are held in numerous private collections including the Asian American Art Centre in New York, the Nevada Museum of Art, and the Triton Museum of Art and Crocker Art Museum in California.  His work was included in the International Arts & Artists traveling exhibition, Infinite Mirror; Images of American Identity which opened at Syracuse University in New York, traveling to museums and universities throughout the Eastern United States.

Fortes has received grants from the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission and the California Arts Council, was awarded a Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant and nominated twice for the Alliance of Artists Communities, Vision from the New California Project.  John has been an artist in residence at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art in Omaha, Nebraska and the Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. Currently John is a resident artist working with the Twin Rivers Unified School District and a partnership with Verge Center for Contemporary Art in Sacramento.
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Born in Tokyo, Japan, John’s family migrated to San Francisco, California when he was five years old.  He attended California State University, Fresno where he studied under artist and musician, Terry Allen and conceptual artist, Charles Gaines.  John lives with his wife and daughter in Sacramento, California.