Norie Sato
A Seattle resident since 1972, Norie Sato is a multidisciplinary visual artist. Sato has worked in various mediums including printmaking, video, sculpture, terrazzo flooring, and glass. Her long career includes contributions to the development of American arts and culture through public service and teaching, a wide range of public art projects, and many collaborations with other artists.
Norie Sato was born in Japan and moved with her family to the United States when she was 4. They lived for a few years in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and then settled in Michigan. After graduating from the University of Michigan and spending a year studying art in Japan, Sato moved to Seattle in 1972 to pursue graduate studies.
Sato received her Master of Fine Arts degree in printmaking from the University of Washington, where she studied video art with artist Bill Ritchie; they would later share studio space along with several other artists at Triangle Studios in Pioneer Square. Sato quickly became involved in Seattle's art world, winning first prize in the Professional Prints category at the 1973 Pacific Northwest Arts and Crafts Fair, and establishing a lithography studio at Seattle Pacific College (now Seattle Pacific University) and teaching at the Bellevue Museum School, the Foundation School of Contemporary Art, and elsewhere. By 1976 she was a member of the Seattle Arts Commission.
She is now based in Seattle, and creates artwork for both a studio practice and for public places. She has created individual, collaborative, design team public art projects as well as creating various public art plans for projects both large and small. She works from site and context-driven ideas first, then finds the appropriate form and materials, striving to add meaning and human touch to the built environment. She is interested how the artwork is situated holistically within a site and environmental concerns of materials, concept and use. She believes in working collaboratively on big picture thinking and to allow for a more seamless integration. She has worked in universities, airports, libraries, transit, city halls, convention centers, infrastructure and parks all over the country including Seattle, Scottsdale, AZ; Ames, IA; Madison, WI: Portland, OR; San Francisco; Miami; San Diego; for example. Her public art work has been recognized 5 times by the Public Art Network’s Year in Review.
SOURCE - https://www.historylink.org/File/10941 (Oct 2025) & http://www.noriesato.com/about.html (Oct 2025)
