Mika Negishi Laidlaw received her BA in studio art from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville and her MFA in ceramics from Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas. She was an apprentice at the Akishino-Pottery for Masaya Imanishi in Nara-City, Japan, from 1994 – 1997. She is currently an associate professor of art and ceramics at Minnesota State University in Mankato.
Her voluptuous sculptural and functional forms have been included in exhibitions such as Seven-Year Itch, Les Laidlaw and Mika Negishi Laidlaw, two-person exhibition, Carnegie Center for Art, Mankato, Minnesota; Immigrant Impact, Duncan McClellan Gallery, St. Petersburg, Florida; 2010 International Orton Cone Box show, Holt/Russell Gallery, Baldwin, Kansas; 8 Fluid Ounces, Glassell Gallery, Louisiana State University; and Art of Fine Craft, Lux Center for the Arts, Lincoln, Nebraska.