Overview
Born in Waipahu, Hawaii, Tetsuo Ochikubo was a Japanese-American Abstract Expressionist painter, sculptor, and printmaker. Ochikubo served in combat during World War II, and shortly after his discharge from the Army he began to study painting and design at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, later moving on to the Art Students League of New York. He lived and worked in Long Island and Syracuse, New York. In the 1960s, he worked at the Tamarind Institute, a non-profit lithography workshop in Albuquerque, New Mexico; upon his return, he taught at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. Best known for his abstract paintings and lithographs, Ochikubo was a member of the Metcalf Chateau, a group of seven Asian-American artists with ties to Honolulu. Other members included Satoru Abe, Bumpei Akaji, Edmund Chung, Jerry T. Okimoto, James Park, and Tadashi Sato. These artists were all Hawaiian-born modernists who considered themselves nisei (second generation) of Japanese descent, and they derived their name from a house on Metcalf Street in Honolulu, where they exhibited in the early 1950s. Ochikubo, a lover of nature in all its forms, died tragically in a diving accident in Hilo in 1975 at the age of 51.
Solo Exhibitions
Library of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1949
Club 100, Memorial Building, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1952
Honolulu Y.B.A. Hall, Hawaii, 1953
Honolulu Academy of Arts, Hawaii, 1955
Columbia Museum, Columbia, South Carolina, 1959
The Gallery, Hawaii, 1959
Tweed Gallery, University of Minnesota, Duluth, 1960
University of Mississippi, Mississippi, 1960
Delta State College, Mississippi, 1960
Krasner Galleries, New York City, New York, 1958-72
Mary Washington College, Fredericksburg, Virginia, 1963
Franz Bader Galler, Washington, D.C., 1963
Print Club, Pennsylvania, 1964
Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, 1964
Jewish Community Center, Syracuse, New York, 1966
Contemporary Art Center of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1973
Museums and Public Collections
The Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio
Honolulu Museum of Art, Honolulu, Hawaii
Print Club (now called The Print Center), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Art Students League of New York, New York City, New York
The Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
Mary Washington College, Williamsburg, Virginia
Chrysler Museum of Art, Provincetown, Massachusetts
Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York
Fine Arts Section, US Information Agency, Washington, D.C.
Oswego State University, Oswego, New York
St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York
De Cordova Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts
Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, Honolulu, Hawaii
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, California