Central to Keiko Amenomori-Schmeisser’s artistic practice was the Japanese textile tradition of shibori, a complex form of resist dyeing. Arts editor HELEN MUSA pays tribute to this innovative artist…

Keiko Amenomori-Schmeisser, born December 21, 1949, Japan; died February 20, 2026, Canberra.

Japanese-born textile artist Keiko Amenomori-Schmeisser, known for her innovative work bridging traditional Japanese craft and contemporary textile practice, has died of cancer. She was 76.

Born in Nishinomiya, Japan, Keiko grew up between Japan and Germany. She later studied textile design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Hamburg.

The widow of German-born printmaker and renowned artist Jörg Schmeisser, Keiko met him in Kyoto in 1970. The couple were together for more than four decades together and had two daughters. A former head of printmaking at the Australian National University School of Art, Schmeisser died in 2012.

Keiko moved with her husband to Australia when he took up his position at the ANU in 1978 and made Canberra her home, while maintaining strong connections with Kyoto.

She was struck by the dry, harsh environment as well as the strange language, saying “the never ending sky and the vast spaces were on a much larger scale that I had been used to.”

It was through the lens of her camera that Keiko discovered the excitement of nature and the beauty of organic objects. It helped her come to terms with the Australian environment.

In the early days of their marriage she travelled with Jörg to the US, Israel, the village in Poland where he was born, and around Japan.

But with two daughters to raise, Keiko stayed at home in O’Connor while his travels took him to places as far afield as Angkor Wat, Antarctica, Ladakh, Jerusalem, Venice, Princeton and Arnhem Land.

“He was not often at home,” Keiko once told me, “but luckily my father had been a businessman and was hardly at home, so it was quite familiar.”

Meantime, she became a highly respected artist whose practice ranged from independent design and international exhibitions to public, commercial and community projects.

Her 2003 exhibition ‘With the Flow, Against the Grain’ toured between Kyoto and the Australian embassy in Washington DC.

Her works and commissions also appeared in prominent Australian sites including Old Parliament House, the Australian National Botanic Gardens, and the Kingston Foreshore precinct.

In 1988 Mitchell/Giurgola & Thorp Architects gave Amenomori-Schmeisser her first big commission — Calligraphic Landscape. A series of designs for screen partitions, it was developed for the Reception Hall of the new Parliament House.

In 2001, the ACT Government commissioned four banners of the ACT’s floral emblem the Royal Bluebell. In the same year, the Department of the House of Representatives commissioned four banners, each 7.25m, long for rotation on the walls of the entrance to the House of Representatives to celebrate the Centenary of Federation.

She was also a committed teacher and advocate for creative practice, running textile workshops in Australia and overseas and teaching creative arts to people with disabilities at the Canberra Institute of Technology.

Her work is represented in national and international collections, including the National Gallery of Australia, the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Orange Regional Gallery, the Parliament House Art Collection, the University of Southern Queensland, the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg, and Kasuga Grand Shrine in Nara.

Central to her artistic practice was the Japanese textile tradition of shibori, a complex form of resist dyeing. After attending a workshop by Japanese indigo master Hiroyuki Shindo in 1995, she developed a deep engagement with the technique, combining traditional craft with contemporary artistic expression.

At the time of her passing, she had been preparing for a major survey exhibition curated by Peter Haynes. The exhibition, Keiko Amenomori-Schmeisser: A Journey in Textiles, is scheduled to open at Cowra Regional Art Gallery in August 2026.

Keiko is survived by her daughters, Aya and Taë Schmeisser.

Prepared with assistance from Meredith Hinchliffe.