Fumi Amano was born in Aichi, Japan and first learned glassmaking as a traditional Japanese craft. She earned a BFA from Aichi University of Education (2008) and studied glass at the Toyama City Institute of Glass Art (2010). In 2013, Amano moved to the United States and earned an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University (2017). During graduate school, she faced difficulties as a foreigner and, specifically, as a Japanese woman living in the United States. Amano’s frustration with communication failures and prejudice towards Asian women ignited her passion for art as a method of expressing feelings that cannot be explained in words. Her goal is to make work that conveys her emotions and experience as an Asian woman, and to connect with others beyond, above, and below language’s normal spectrum. Amano has exhibited her artwork in museums and galleries, including the Bellevue Art Museum in Bellevue, WA, the Storefronts program supported by Shunpike, and Antenna Gallery in New Orleans, LA. In 2017, Fumi received 2nd prize in the “Out of the Box” outdoor sculpture exhibition at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art in Auburn, AL. Amano lives and works in Seattle, WA.