Nishiki Sugawara-Beda is a Japanese-American visual artist based in painting and installation. She draws upon her Japanese heritage to explore themes related to culture, language, and spirituality rooted in Zen Buddhism. Connecting across space and time, she experiments in ancient Japanese materials and techniques including Sumi ink, Kakejiku landscapes, and rice paper, to merge them with abstract and expressive forms familiar to the modern Western aesthetic.

Sugawara-Beda’s most recent recognition is an acquisition by the Dallas Museum of Art for its permanent collection. She exhibits her work in solo and group exhibitions and offers lectures nationally and internationally to promote cultural diversity and exchange. Exhibition venues include the Spartanburg Art Museum (SC), Morris Graves Museum of Art (CA), Dennos Museum (MI) and Amos Eno Gallery (NY). Publications include New American Paintings, AEQAI, Athenaeum Review, London Post, and Art Spiel. Awards including a Seed Grant, Diversity Fellow Program, International Enhancement Grant, Idaho Arts Fellowship, Sam Taylor Fellowship, Otis and Velma Davis Dozier Travel Fund, and Tusen Takk Foundation residency have supported her artistic research. Currently, she is an Associate Professor of Art at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX.

In addition to national conferences, including the College Art Association, Sugawara-Beda also gives keynote speeches and workshops to cultural organizations including Pilipino American Unity for Progress, Inc., OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates, and Business Council for the Arts, Dallas.

See You There, a full-color art book surveying her work from 2012 to 2020, is published by Execute Magazine in 2021.