Joan Kimura has been a professional artist for over 55 years, having lived and work in New York City as a painter and illustrator, and later moving to Anchorage, Alaska, where she continued focus on her painting and became a Professor of Art at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. Her work is included in collections in three major museums in Alaska.

Kimura’s work primarily focuses upon and draws from the human figure, using both figurative and abstracted shapes. She describes her work as being necessarily responsive to both memory and feeling, tying these constructs to the abstracted forms and permutations she creates within her work.