Kanna Aoki was born in Tokyo and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, earning a BA in Studio Art and Mathematics from University of the Pacific in California. After college, she worked as an illustrator for various clients while living in San Francisco. Several years later, parenting replaced client work, and evening art classes led to a painting practice which grew along with her sons. She now paints full-time in her studio in Berkeley, and lives with her partner, type designer Mark van Bronkhorst, and their two cats.
Her work is regularly shown in galleries, and is in private and public collections across the US and abroad.