LYDIA OKUMURA

Okumura moved to New York in 1974, where she attended the Pratt Graphics Center and collaborated on Sol LeWitt’s Minimalist wall drawings, to which her own works have been compared. Okumura creates her ‘Situations’ by painting directly on walls, connecting geometric shapes with pieces of string and drawn graphite lines that result in deceptively simple optical illusions. As the artist explains, “I longed to combine the idea of dimensions – from three-dimensional to flat surfaces – to multi-dimensions perceptible by the mind”.

Okumura participated in five São Paulo Biennials between 1973-84, as well as numerous gallery and institutional exhibitions across the US and Latin America, including a solo show at the Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo in 1984. Okumura received her first touring US retrospective in 2016, which started at UB Art Galleries, Buffalo, NY before travelling to the Weber State University in Utah, and the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art in Arizona.

Okumura’s works are included in the permanent collections of major institutions, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museo de Arte Moderna, Brazil; Museum of Belas Artes, Venezuela; Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan; Akron Art Museum, Ohio and University of Buffalo Museum, NY.