Sidney Yee

EDUCATION

1970 BA Education, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii 

1972 MA Education, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii 

PRIMARY WORK EXPERIENCE 

1975 – 1980 Maui High School, Kahului, Hawaii 

1980 – onward Lahainaluna High School, Lahaina, Hawaii 

BIOGRAPHY 

Sidney TK Yee is a Hawaiian artist known for sculptural, raku-fired ceramic pots and acrylic and mixed media paintings. Yee’s pots are often made to be decorative, not functional,  are spherical with little to no opening, and glazed with light, greens and black, in a light, dusty coloration. 

Yee is also known for designing a ceramic tile mural for the Kahului Maui Airport in 1991. The hand painted tiles feature scenes of life on Maui and was commissioned by the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. 

Apart from being a studio artist, Yee was a high school teacher in Maui for most of his career. In 1995, Yee went on sabbatical and took painting classes at the University of Hawaii. After working exclusively in ceramics for over 20 years, he began to make work primarily as a painter.  

In 2019, Yee had a retrospective show at the Schafer International Gallery in Maui, Hawaii, which covered 40 years of his career, from ceramics to painting. “Sidney Yee: Wabi-Sai” was covered in The Maui News, and can be accessed here: https://www.mauinews.com/life/pau-hana/2019/05/sidney-yee-wabi-sai/