A third-generation Japanese American, Robert Ogata was born in Anaheim,
California and imprisoned with his family on the Pima Indian Reservation in
Gila, Arizona during WWII. Conveying a sense of strength and dignity, his
paintings are characterized by sensual surfaces, unusual color and deft
brushwork. Ogata utilizes both the Zen tenant that the act of painting is a
meditation and the American abstract expressionism notion that art is best
when exuberantly expressive of the individual. Educated at Reedley College
and Fresno State University, Ogata also taught painting and ceramics for 37
years.