Bio:

Curtis Hidemasa Nickerson Arima is a craft artist and educator who transforms inherited and found materials into meaningful objects that honor sustainability, cultural heritage, and personal narrative.  

As a Californian of Japanese descent (Yonsei) and a member of the LGBTQ+ community, Arima draws from multiple cultures and identities as inspirations for his work. 

Arima is a Professor at California College of the Arts, where he chairs the Ceramics, Jewelry & Metal Arts, Sculpture, Textiles, and Individualized Undergraduate Programs. He is dedicated to mentoring students, supporting faculty, and fostering innovation promoting sustainable practices.

His work has been exhibited at the Metal Museum, Fuller Craft Museum, New York Jewelry Week, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, and internationally at The Vennel Gallery in Scotland and the Ruthin Craft Centre in Wales, among others. His pieces are held in the permanent collections of the Metal Museum (2024) and the Kamm Teapot Foundation (1997).

He has lectured, taught workshops, and done projects in the US and abroad, including with YBCA, SF, CA;  SNAG conference, San Diego, CA; Indiana University, Bloomington; Haystack Mountain School of Craft;  Musashino Art University in Tokyo, Japan; and Shenzhen Polytechnic in Shenzhen, China. 

He serves on the Board of Directors for Ethical Metalsmiths, where he advocates for responsible practices in metalsmithing and jewelry.

Arima holds an Individualized BFA in Ceramics and Jewelry/Metal Arts from California College of Arts and Crafts and an MFA in Metalsmithing from Cranbrook Academy of Art.

Additional information

What motivates your practice?

I am driven by the belief that craft has the power to transform materials, lives, and communities. My work seeks to honor this transformative potential while addressing critical issues of sustainability and cultural preservation.

These are the sustainability tenets that guide my creative practices.

Economic/Professional Sustainability: Sustaining a professional and financial practice.
Cultural Sustainability: Sustaining and honoring traditional and non-traditional cultures and identities.
Social Sustainability: Sustaining relationships with people, communities, society, and supporting social justice.
Emotional Sustainability: Sustaining emotional, mental, and physical health.
Environmental Sustainability: Supporting earth health, ecosystems, and the way living and non-living things function together.

Materials and Process

Ethical Metalsmiths’ Radical Jewelry Makeover, Nick Dong’s Mendsmith at YBCA, and my clients' personal heirlooms are my community based collaborations that give me access to  materials that are aligned with my sustainable principles. Through representation in metal my work recaptures, recovers, and reveals the innate beauty that is overlooked and underappreciated in once valued objects.

I employ traditional techniques such as hand fabrication, stone setting, raising, enameling, and hand push engraving. My slow craft approach stands in opposition to mass production and planned obsolescence, celebrating time-honored traditions and ensuring their relevance in contemporary contexts. I treat found materials as precious and level the hierarchy of material value through my craftsmanship. 

Cultural Heritage and History
As a fourth-generation Japanese American, my identity informs my artistic perspective. Asian aesthetics feel both foreign and familiar, and reconnecting with my ancestral lineage allows me to create multi generational-pan-cultural objects. 

Recently, I have focused on preserving and reinterpreting stories from my elders and ancestors’ experiences during WWII Japanese American internment. By gathering memories and transforming them into abstracted jewelry pieces, I explore themes of trauma, resilience, and hidden joy in this time of incarceration. This documentation captures lived experiences before they fade into history. I reveal these injustices as a cautionary tale for future generations.

In all aspects of my practice, I strive to honor sustainability, heritage, and the power of craft as a bridge between the past, present, and future.