Tim Okamura

Saskatchewan NAC Auction House Biography and Notes

Tim Okamura was born in 1968 in Edmonton, Alberta and is currently based in Brooklyn, New York City. He earned a B.F.A. with Distinction at the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary, AB. before moving to New York City to attend the School of Visual Arts, graduating with an M.F.A. in Illustration in Visual Journalism in 1993. Okamura was the recipient of the 2004 Fellowship in Painting from the New York Foundation for the Arts and has also had his paintings featured in several films including Pieces of April, School of Rock, Jersey Girl, and most prominently in Prime (Universal), a romantic comedy about a young New York painter starring Uma Thurman and Meryl Streep. His work has been exhibited in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, and the prestigious BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery in London, England. His portrait of Toni Morrison created for Time magazine's '100 Women of the Year' project was purchased by filmmaker Spike Lee. Other celebrity collectors of Okamura's work include Uma Thurman, Ethan Hawke and John Mellencamp. Okamura employs a style that combines 'realist' approach to the figure with collage, spray paint and mixed media. He 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 Jiminez Colon 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.