Tim okamura

Available Works

Biography

Tim Okamura investigates identity, the urban environment, metaphor and cultural iconography through painting. By combing an essentially “realist” approach to the figure with collage, spray paint and mixed media, he juxtaposes the rawness and urgency of street art with academic ideals to create a visual language that acknowledges a traditional from of story-academic ideals to create a visual language that acknowledges a traditional form of story-telling through portraiture, while infusing the work with resonant contemporary motifs.

Born in Edmonton (Canada), Okamura earned a BFA with Distinction at the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary before moving to New York City to attend the School of Visual Arts in 1991. After graduating with an MFA in Illustration as Visual Journalism in 1993, Okamura moved to Brooklyn, where he continues to live and work.

A recipient of the 2004 Fellowship in Painting from the New York Foundation for the Arts, Tim Okamura was short-listed by the Royal Surveyor of the Queen's Picture Collection for a commissioned portrait of the Queen of England in 2006 and has been selected nine times to appear in the prestigious BP Portrait Award Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

In 2013, the University of North Carolina hosted a retrospective exhibition of his work that focused on nearly a decade of production. Okamura's work was also featured at the Art Director's Club in New York the same year, followed by a solo show at National Arts Club alongside the works of Romare Bearden in 2014. He received an invitation to The White House in 2015 to honor artists whose work addresses issues of social justice and received a letter of commendation from the Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden. His work was included in a traveling exhibition by the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in 2016 and most recently several of Okamura's works were featured prominently in the "Still I Rise" exhibition at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in 2020.

Tim Okamura has exhibited extensively in galleries throughout the world, including the United States, Canada, Italy, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Ecuador and Turkey and is part of both private and public collections, such as the permanent collections of the Davis Museum at Wellesley College, the Jiménez Colón Museum, The Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History at the University of North Carolina, The Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Toronto Congress Center and Standard Chartered Bank in London.

CV

Education 

1996-99 New York Academy of Art, New York, NY
1993 M.F.A., School of Visual Arts, New York, NY
1991 B.F.A., Alberta College of Art and Design, Canada             

Awards & Residencies  

2020  James Baird Foundation Artist Residency, Pouch Cove, Newfoundland, Canada (postponed)
2020 Teaching Residency, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art
2016 Artist-in-Residence at Red Bird Gallery, New York, NY
2015 Letter of Commendation from Vice President of the United States Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
2015  Honored at the White House for Contributions to Contemporary Art for Social Justice
2008 Shortlisted for Portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures, Saint James Palace,
London, UK
2004  Lily Auchincloss Foundation: NYFA Chosen Fellow in Painting
2004 New York Foundation for the Arts: Fellowship in Painting
1991 Alberta College of Art Board of Governors Award
1990 Louise McKinney Post-Secondary Scholarship
1989 Henry Clinton Memorial Scholarship for Achievement in Visual Arts
1989 Louise McKinney Post-Secondary Scholarship 
1988 Louise McKinney Post-Secondary Scholarship 

Professional Experience 

2019 Guest Lecturer, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, Maryland
2016 Artist Lecture, The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC
2001-11 Adjunct Professor, Drawing and Painting: Parsons School of Design, New York, NY
1999-06 Adjunct Professor, Drawing and Design: The City College of The City University of New York,
New York, NY
2006 Artist Lecture, The Art Students’ League, New York, NY
2005 Guest Critic, California State University, Long Beach, CA 
2004 Artist Lecture, Master’s Study Tour, Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, NY
2000 Guest Lecturer, St. John’s University, Queens, NY

Solo Exhibitions                  

2019 The Message, Meijler Art at Scope Art Fair, Miami, FL
2018 Recent Work, Christian Marx Gallery, VOLTA Basel, Switzerland
2018 Love, Strength & Soul, Packer Collegiate Institute, Brooklyn, NY
2017 My Music at Work, Liquidity Gallery, Okanagan Falls, British Columbia, Canada
2017 Begin Transmission, Peter Robertson Gallery, Edmonton, Canada
2016 Recent Work, Soho House, New York, NY
2016  Work in Progress, Red Bird Gallery, New York, NY
2014  Love, Strength & Soul, Yeelen Gallery, Miami, FL
2014 Her Story, Douglas Udell Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
2014   Survey 2009-2014, National Arts Club, New York, NY
2013 This Story Has Not Yet Been Told…, The Robert and Sallie Brown Gallery and Museum, The Sonja
Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC
2012 Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Douglas Udell Gallery, Edmonton, Canada
2011 Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Lyons Wier Gallery, New York, NY
2011 Recent Work, VOLTA New York, Lyons Wier Gallery, New York, NY
2009 Brooklyn Walls: hopechangedreams, Douglas Udell Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
2008 Women in White / Bushwick Walls, Douglas Udell Gallery, Edmonton, Canada
2006 Urban Portraits + Brooklyn Mythology, Axis Art, Calgary, Canada
2005  Urban Portraits + Brooklyn Mythology, Delgado-Tomei Gallery, Brooklyn, NY 
2003 New Urban Portraits + Bricks, Locks, & Obstacles, Kanvas Gallery, NY, NY
2002 Recent Work, Northsix Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2001 Urban Portraits, The Cutting Room, New York, NY

Two Person Exhibitions 

2016 Goddess, with Barron Claiborne, Gallery Josephine, Martha’s Vineyard, MA
2015 Begin Transmission, with Chris Marshall, Be Electric Studio, Brooklyn, NY
2014  Recent Work, with Jerome Lagarrigue, White Room, Liquid Art System, Capri, Italy
2009 Love, Strength & Soul, with TheKidBelo, Show & Tell Gallery, Toronto, Canada
2007 Brooklyn Mythology: The First Nations Cycle, with TheKidBelo, Axis Contemporary Art, Calgary,     
Alberta, Canada

Selected Exhibitions 

2021 Dreaming Together, New York Historical Society and Asia Society Museum, New York, NY
2020 2020 Vision, Southampton Art Center, Southampton, NY
2019 Still I Rise, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, MA
2019 Respect, Casita Maria Center for Arts & Education, Bronx, NY
2018 Painting the Figure Now, Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art, Wausau, WI
2018 The Outwin: American Portraiture Today, Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
2018 Fresh Paint, Meijler Art, The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, Tel Aviv, Israel
2017 Scope Art Fair, Meijler Art, Miami Beach, FL
2017  The Outwin: American Portraiture Today, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO
2017   Special Project: VOLTA New York, New York, NY
2017   Art Karlsrühe, Christian Marx Gallery, Karlsrühe, Germany
2016  Liberty and Justice for Some, Walter Maciel Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2016   Art for Rights, Amnesty International, Los Angeles, CA
2016  Duets: A Comparison of Realities, Fort Works Art, Fort Worth, TX
2016   About Face with Amy Sherald, Ebony G Patterson & Rozeal, Creative Alliance, Baltimore, MD
2016  Urban Dawn Vol. II, The Loft, Beirut, Lebanon
2016   The Outwin: American Portraiture Today, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC
2015  Scope Art Fair, Miami, Mika Gallery, Miami, FL
2015   ACT/ART EXHIBITION, East Wing of the White House, Washington, DC
2015   Sublime: Harlem, 345 Gallery, New York, NY
2015   Urban Development, Castle Fitzjohns Gallery, New York, NY
2015   The Outwin: American Portraiture Today, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC
2015   Implicit Bias, Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery, Washington, DC
2015   Power, Protest, & Resistance: The Art of Revolution, Rush Arts Gallery, New York, NY
2015   Trophy Art, Azart Gallery, New York, NY
2015   Spring Preview, Douglas Udell Gallery, Edmonton, Canada 
2015   International Salon of June, LAC, Machala, Ecuador
2015   Jumping the Line, Artiz Group in Harlem, New York, NY
2015   Light of the Ancestors, Pepco Edison Place Gallery, Washington, DC
2015   Artists Gaze: Seeing Women in the 21st Century, Sirona Fine Art, Hallandale Beach, FL
2014    Scope Art Fair, Miami, Castle Fitzjohns Gallery, Miami, FL
2014   Istanbul Contemporary Art Fair, White Room / Liquid Art System, Istanbul, Turkey
2014   CONTEXT Art Fair, Miami Beach, White Room / Liquid Art System, Miami, FL
2014   Identity, Snap! Orlando, Orlando, FL
2014   Behind Narrative, One Art Space, New York, NY
2014    For the Time Being, Koki Arts, Tokyo, Japan
2014  Fixation, Zhou B Art Center, Chicago, IL
2014   MIA in MIA, Lyons Wier Gallery, New York, NY
2013   Art Miami, Lyons Wier Gallery, Miami, FL
2013    Round Zero, The Art Director’s Club, New York, NY
2013   Body Politic, The National Arts Club, New York, NY
2013   From Motion to Stillness, Zhou B Art Center, Chicago, IL
2012   Scope Art Fair, Miami, Evan Lurie Gallery, Miami, FL
2012   Toronto International Art Fair, Lyons Wier Gallery, Toronto, Canada
2012  The Box That Rocks, Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, Brooklyn, NY
2011   Pulse International Art Fair, Lyons Wier Gallery, Miami, Fl
2011  BP Portrait Awards Exhibition, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK
2011  Here and Now, Lyons Wier Gallery, New York, NY
2010   Pulse International Art Fair, Lyons Wier Gallery, Miami, FL
2010   BP Portrait Awards Exhibition, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK
2010    The Gentrification of Brooklyn: The Pink Elephant Speaks, Museum of Contemporary African   
         Diasporan Arts, Brooklyn, NY
2009   BP  Portrait Awards Exhibition, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK
2008   BP  Portrait Awards Exhibition, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK 
2007  Toronto International Art Fair, Toronto, Canada
2006   BP  Portrait Awards Exhibition, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK
2005   BP Portrait Awards Exhibition, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland
2005    Figuratively Speaking: Seven Painters, Delgado-Tomei Gallery, Brooklyn, NY 
2005   BP Portrait Awards Exhibition, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK
2004  BP Portrait Awards Exhibition, Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen, Scotland
2004   Commissioned / Non-Commissioned, Chung-Cheng Gallery, St. John’s University, Queens, New York
2004  BP Portrait Awards Exhibition, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK
2003  After Matisse / Picasso, P.S.1/MoMA, Queens, NY
2002   Fresh 2002, Artspace Gallery, Calgary, Canada
2002  BP Portrait Awards Exhibition, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK
2001  Face Value: Portraits for the New Century, The Chrysler Building, New York, NY
2001  BP Portrait Awards Exhibition, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK
1999  Volte Face: Portraits, 450 Gallery, New York, NY
1999  Portrait and Figurative Exhibition, Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, Brooklyn, NY
1996  10th Anniversary Exhibition, James McMullan Gallery, Edmonton, Canada          
1992  Endangered, Art Directors’ Club, New York, NY
1991  After Hours, William Mackenzie Center Gallery, Edmonton, Canada

Artwork Appearing in Film  

2016  “HEAVYWEIGHTPAINT”, Martini Films
2015   “Urge”, Central Park Films
2007  “The Hottest State”, Barracuda Films                                 
2005  “Prime,” Stratus Films/ Universal
2004  “Jersey Girl,” Miramax
2003   “The School of Rock,” Paramount Pictures
2003  “Just Another Story”, Roxbury Pictures
2003  “Pieces of April,” InDiGent Films
2002  “Unfaithful,” 20th Century Fox

Private Collections  

Spike Lee, director/producer
Uma Thurman, actress
Meg Ryan, actress
John Mellencamp, musician
Courtney Lee, pro athlete
PK Subban, pro athlete
Anabella Sciorra, actress
Bryan Greenberg, actor
Vanessa Marcil, actress
Hill Harper, actor
Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, musician
Ben Younger, screenwriter/director

 Public Collections  

The New York Historical Society, New York, NY
The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
Davis Museum at Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, USA
Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History, UNC, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
Jiménez Colón Museum, Ponce, Puerto Rico
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library, NYC, USA
Howard Tullman Collection, Flashpoint Academy, Chicago, IL, USA
Jiménez Colón Museum, Puerto Rico
The Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Alberta, Canada
Toronto Congress Center, Toronto, Canada
The Hotel Arts, Calgary, Canada
Standard Chartered Bank, London, England 

Links