Kenzi Shiokava, the Los Angeles-based sculptor who transformed tree trunks into towering totem shapes, died on June 18 at the age of 83. The Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles ad the news of the artist’s death in an Instagram post.

Working quietly for decades in a body shop-turned-studio in Compton, Shiokava created a massive body of work that spanned curiosity boxes, junk assemblages, and abstract wood and macrame figures inspired by his Japanese heritage – Brazilian.

Since the mid-1960s, Shiokava has mixed and remixed disparate cultural influences that were in stark contrast to much of the fashionable art creation in California at the time, from light and space to conceptual work. heady. For this reason, institutions have struggled to integrate Shiokava’s extensive work into a single artistic category. Although he had prominent supporters of his art, including actors Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson, Shiokava was not able to support himself by selling his art alone; he was the longtime caretaker of Brando’s house in LA.

In 2016, at age 78, Shiokava received mainstream recognition for his art, when he was included in this year’s edition of the Hammer Museum‘s “Made in LA” Biennale. The curators of the exhibition, Hamza Walker and Aram Moshayedi, have included 66 of his sculptures consisting of felled trees and telephone poles. Reunited, they looked like an alien forest or relics of an ancient mystical rite. For her participation in the show, Shiokava won the biennial’s $ 25,000 Public Recognition Award, which was decided by a public vote.

“I didn’t know it would be like this,” he said the Los Angeles Times in 2016. “The response has been incredible. “

Shiokava was born and raised in Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, Brazil, the son of Japanese immigrants who fled their country of origin due to economic hardship. In 1964, when he was 25, Shiokava hitchhiked in a military transport vehicle to Los Angeles, where his sister had moved years before. He considered pursuing a practical degree like medicine, but failed the entrance exam. He saw the failure with relief: “I felt freer,” he recalls in Los Angeles Times.

Instead, he decided to attend art school and was accepted to the prestigious Chouinard Art Institute on the strength of his sketchbook and thin portfolio of paintings. But he was unhappy to study painting; the design and the silkscreen were just as ill-suited. In the fourth year, he was obliged to take a sculpture course.

“I started to clean some of the wood and I realize: ‘This is it! It’s wood! ‘ “, he said. “He has a story. It’s right there. I was so excited nothing else mattered. Very quickly, he created his first series of totemic figures, which are exhibited alongside several assemblages at the Chouinard gallery.

Joan Ankrum, of the Ankrum Gallery, noticed the exhibition and gave Shiokava a solo exhibition in the fall of 1979. His work was generally well received – a review in the New York Times pointed out her “subtle and provocative ripples,” but it was a tough sell. He continued his studies and obtained a master’s degree in fine arts from the Otis Art Institute in 1974.

Shiokava was Artist in Residence at the Watts Towers Art Center for several years, and his work was exhibited in space in a group exhibition in 2012. It was included in the Japanese American National Museum’s exhibition “Transpacific Borderlands: The Art of Japanese Diaspora in Lima, Los Angeles, Mexico City and São Paulo ”, which opened in 2017 as part of the Getty Foundation’s Pacific Standard Time: LA / LA initiative.

Until his death, Shiokava regularly produced increasingly detailed work – sculpted columns and dioramas of trinkets salvaged from thrift stores and garage sales.

“What has always kept me going are the people who come to my studio and enjoy the work,” he said. “But now I know my work will have a legacy. My work will live on.