Marie Woo, a Chinese–American ceramicist and educator, died on February 4, 2026, at age 97.
Born in Seattle, Washington, on April 3, 1928, to Southern Chinese parents, she earned a bachelor’s degree in fine art from the University of Washington in 1954 and a master’s degree from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1956. There, she studied under Maija Grotell and became proficient in clay.
After what she described as a transformative graduate program, Woo spent part of the 1960s in Southeast Asia and later based her postgraduate work primarily in and around Bizen, Japan, where she studied ancient clay-working methods and local unglazed pottery traditions.
Marie Woo (April 3, 1928 – February 4, 2026) was a Chinese-American ceramicist and educator.