BOISE, ID.- Boise Art Museum (BAM) announced the purchase of the painting AMERICAN INFAMY #2 – an important new work of art by nationally renowned artist, Roger Shimomura. Comprising four panels, the large-scale work (72” x 120”) recalls the artist’s internment with his family in Idaho’s Camp Minidoka (near Twin Falls), during World War II. The painting, depicting daily life in the camp, is currently on display at the Museum.

Roger Shimomura states, "For forty summers now, I have driven through Minidoka on my annual cross country drives back and forth between my home in Kansas and my birthplace of Seattle. My yearly sojourn through Idaho has become the primary source of inspiration for the intensely personal research on the internment experience that has dominated my entire career as an artist and educator. Since Minidoka represents both a temporary physical place and an indelible memory within my family's history, I still feel connected to it. I can think of no better home for this painting than the Boise Art Museum."

Through the generosity of community members, the support of the artist and his gallery, and the dedicated patrons who spearheaded this effort, the Museum was able recently to realize its fundraising goal to purchase the Shimomura painting. States Interim Executive Director Melanie Fales, “We are grateful to the donors in the community who have made it possible to purchase this significant work of art for the Museum’s Permanent Collection. This painting serves as a remarkable example of the power of art to communicate an historical event from a personal perspective and inspire meaningful conversations about social and cultural issues.”

Roger Shimomura was born in 1939 in Seattle, Washington. He received his B.A. degree from the University of Washington and his M.F.A. degree from Syracuse University. He currently resides in Lawrence, KS, where he has taught art since 1969 at the University of Kansas. AMERICAN INFAMY #2 is a fitting late-career work for Shimomura, whose Pop style paintings address issues of Asian American identity and cultural politics. The style of this particular piece is derived from 14th and 15th century Japanese Muromachi era byobu screen painting that traditionally depict street scene action through layers of clouds and foreshortened perspective. Roger Shimomura is represented by Greg Kucera Gallery in Seattle, WA.