Born in 1952 in La Junta, Colorado, Wendy Maruyama is a furniture designer, installation artist, and professor emeritus of woodworking and furniture design at San Diego State University, her alma mater (BFA, 1975). After studying for two years at Boston University, Maruyama went on to complete her MFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology (1980). She was one of the first two women to graduate from the program. Up until the early 2000s, Maruyama created playful yet functional furniture identifiable by bold colors, contrasting surface treatments, and non-traditional materials. In a mid-career shift, she began to explore of her Japanese-American heritage through sculpture. Recent works include E.O. 9066, an installation centering around President Roosevelt’s 1942 executive order authorizing Japanese internment, and The wildLIFE Project, a collection of works relating to poaching and the continued trade of illegal animal products. She has exhibited around the country and is represented within many public and private collections, including at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Museum of Arts and Design in New York. Maruyama was elected a Fellow of the American Craft Council in 2008.