Tim Okamura
Tim Okamura is a Canadian artist known for his striking portraits of women of color in strong poses, and his combination of classical techniques of oil painting with the spontaneity of spray painted graffiti. Living and working in Brooklyn, NY, his work investigates identity and the urban environment.
His goal is to represent his subjects in a way that “offers a very direct experience of them, so it looks and feels like them. The person’s presence is the content that is primary to my work.”
“I don’t consider myself trying to say I’m an authority on African-American culture of life per se. I’m really a storyteller, and in my portraits, there’s a narrative, and I think that the people I paint, in my opinion, have a very important story that needs to be told.”
Okamura has had multiple solo exhibitions in New York and Canada, and has had his work chosen for inclusion in several prominent group exhibitions, including After Matisse/Picasso at the Museum of Modern Art-affiliated P.S.1, as well as being selected five times to appear in exhibitions at London’s National Portrait Gallery. He received the 2004 Fellowship in Painting from the New York Foundation for the Arts, has had his paintings featured in several films, and has paintings in many private collections.
