Jennifer Sakai is a fine art photographer, Museum Curator and professor who resides in Washington D.C. She received her MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in Fine Art Photography, and her BFA in fine art design in Cambridge Massachusetts. She has taught at The Park School of Communication at Ithaca College, Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond Virginia, The Corcoran School of Art and Design, George Washington University, and the MFA program at American University.
Jennifer is curator of ‘Border Wall’ at the Katzen Museum in 2021, and ‘The Gifts of Tony Podesta’ at the Katzen Arts Center of American University winter 2019.
Ms. Sakai is on the Board of Directors for Transformer Gallery in Washington, D.C. She has served on committees for IMF/World Bank Photographic Society, juried for ExposedDC and VCU School of Art thesis program, received distinction from FotoWeek DC in the Fine Art Photography category and is the winner of the 16th Annual Exposed DC Photographic Contest 2022. She currently sits on the strategic planning board for American University Katzen Museum and has presented numerous curatorial and professional lectures.
Ms.Sakai has shown at Somerset House in London England. The Corcoran Museum in Washington D.C., The Anderson Gallery in Richmond, Virginia, IA&A at Hillyer Gallery, Washington, D.C., , Addison Ripley Fine Art, Washington, D.C., Lightwork Gallery, Syracuse New York, Rubenstein Arts Center at Duke University, Photoworks Gallery in Maryland and the Handwerker Gallery in Ithaca, NY. Jennifer is a selected artist for the Bonfire Air Artist Residency.
Her artistic practice examines the landscape as reflection for interior moments in life, often separated by years yet unraveling and overlapping to inform new narratives. Images chronicle how the topographies and space we inhabit influence and resonate long after we pass through them; and how one can be mesmerized by a place even in its absence. Her imagery breathes life, creating a bridge between the tangible and metaphysical by presenting an atmosphere of profound beauty.
She has published in the Guardian UK, LensCulture, The Washington Post, American University Press, Musée Magazine, Fotofilmic, Float Magazine, F-Stop Magazine, Covid Picture Archive, Washington City Paper, Color Tag Magazine and The Tiny Seed Literary Journal.
Ms. Sakai currently lectures in the MFA program at American University, her curation of “Vertiginous Matter” at the Katzen Museum was listed number five in the top eight museum shows for 2022 by CityPaper in Washington, D.C.
Jennifer is a multiple recipient of a DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Grant for her photographic practice.
She is a winner in the 2023 LensCulture Art Photography Awards. She will be exhibiting at Photo London at Somerset House in May 2023.
Jennifer has been selected for a Vermont Studio Center Artist Residency in Johnson Vermont for Fall 2023.