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⬇️ Download Exhibition History
⬇️ Download the works of Rieko and her students
Art has the power to evoke emotion, surface ideas, and awaken fragments of memory that lie deep within our subconscious. It touches us intellectually, psychologically, mentally, and even physiologically. We are never quite the same before and after encountering it. My work is rooted in this transformative potential—the capacity of art to plant the seed of an emotional, intellectual, or bodily shift within each of us.
Art also asks essential questions about our purpose and our multifaceted identities. As someone who immigrated to the United States from Japan and later became a naturalized citizen, I carry two distinct cultures, languages, and identities within me. This duality compels me to see the world through multiple lenses, offering perspectives that are layered, sometimes contradictory, and always evolving. My lived experience—shaped by both my Japanese heritage and my American citizenship—continually informs how I move through the world and how I create.
What defines us emerges through our mental and emotional evolution, through the ways we absorb, interpret, and transform our experiences. Identity is not determined solely by race, ethnicity, or social status; these are contexts, not conclusions. Instead, identity forms in the internal processing of our emotions—the quiet negotiations we make with memory, perception, and change. My practice grows from this inner terrain, examining how the unseen layers of experience become the architecture of the self.
Through installation, projection, and time‑based media, I create environments that invite viewers to slow down, to feel, and to reflect. By engaging light, movement, and materiality, my work activates the subtle spaces where perception and emotion meet. In these moments of encounter, I hope to open pathways for viewers to experience their own internal shifts—small but meaningful transformations that continue to resonate long after the work is seen.
If you want to find out what drives me to create my works, please read this article, Conversations with Rieko Chacey on VoyageBaltimore.com
My story as a Japanese American Artist has been also featured on Greater Baltimore Asian Community History by the Asian Arts & Culture Center.
Please see my exhibition history, curriculum vitae and my works and my students’ to see my activities as an artist and educator.
I am deeply energized by collaborating with other artists—supporting their visions, amplifying the emotional force of their work, and creating projected animations, images, and sound that expand the possibilities of their practice. Working alongside other artists is not only creatively stimulating; it is mentally and emotionally restorative. It reconnects me to the communal spirit of art‑making and reminds me that creativity thrives in shared spaces.
I see no boundaries in artistic media. As limitless as the emotional resonance art can evoke, each medium carries its own power, beauty, and impact. This belief guides both my individual practice and my collaborative work, allowing me to approach every project with openness, curiosity, and a deep respect for the many forms art can take.
If interested in collaborating, please contact her.
