A second-generation Brazilian of Japanese descent, Kenzi Shiokava (1938–2021) moved to Los Angeles when he was 25 and remained there for the rest of his life. Working out of a refurbished auto body shop in Compton, he built towering wooden totem sculptures and found-object assemblages that combine traditional woodcarving practices of East Asia and South America with the contemporaneous currents of Southern California. Though unclassifiable and therefore commercially unsuccessful, Shiokava’s work was nonetheless admired by Jack Nicholson and Marlon Brando, and he was finally given his due as the winner of Made in L.A. 2016’s Public Recognition Award. This insightful catalog accompanies the first ever retrospective of Kenzi Shiokava’s work and reveals the ways that the artist embraced diverse influences over decades of artmaking in Los Angeles, creating novel connections across nature, spirituality, and material culture.

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