Lua Kobayashi (she/her) is an artist and educator whose interdisciplinary practice explores memory, displacement, cultural identity, and the relationships between people and place. She earned her B.A. in Art from UCLA and has worked across photography, video, installation, and design.
Drawing from her Japanese American and Uruguayan family histories, Lua’s work is rooted in the ways personal and collective histories are remembered, preserved, and passed between generations. She primarily works with photography, video and installation, alongside archival material, everyday objects, and sites of memory to explore ideas of belonging, absence, and cultural inheritance. Her work has been exhibited nationally, and she has participated in exhibitions, residencies, and community-based projects centered on Japanese American history and cultural preservation.
At Sequoyah, Lua teaches Photography, Graphic Design, and Yearbook. Her approach to teaching is grounded in curiosity, experimentation, and learning to see—encouraging students to develop their own visual language and use creative practice as a way to understand and engage with the world around them.
