Leo Amino

Leo Amino was a Japanese-American sculptor known for his Abstract Expressionist sculptures created with a variety of materials, including wood, wire, and plastics.
Biography.
Born in 1911 in Taiwan, to Japanese parents, he spent much of his early life in Tokyo, where his father's calligraphy and his mother's floral design interested him in working in art. He immigrated to the United States in 1929, enrolling at San Mateo Junior College before briefly attending New York University.
In 1937 he began studying direct carving at under Chaim Gross at the American Artists School. His pieces were included in the 1939 New York World's Fair alongside those of Isamu Noguchi. Another influence was sculptor Henry Moore, whose work Amino encountered on a trip to England in 1938.
Amino's artistic career was briefly halted by World War II, during which he served in the US Navy as a translator. After the war concluded, he noticed the increased availability of synthetic resin due to its use as a substitute for materials that were needed for the war effort. He became the first artist to experiment with and use synthetic resin as an artistic medium, alternating between resin and wood in his sculptures.
In the summers of 1946 and 1950, he taught at Black Mountain College, and from 1952 until 1977 taught at Cooper Union.
Amino died on December 1, 1989, in New York City.
His work is held at institutions including the Asheville Art Museum, Carnegie Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Montclair Art Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, Newark Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University.