Yuria Okamura
(b. 1987, Tokyo, Japan. Lives and works in Melbourne)

For Melbourne Now, Okamura presents three drawings from her suite Temple of Nature, 2022, along with new works from her Healer series, 2022, which depict medicinal plants and make reference to ikebana flower arrangement. The works are displayed on a wall drawing with geometric patterns. Here, her delicate palette resembles watercolour, but these intricate patterns are rendered with acrylic and pen. Okamura draws inspiration from religion, mysticism and science, citing sacred architecture and decoration, spiritualist abstraction, patterns found in nature, and esoteric, occult and alchemical systems. In doing so, she unveils universal resonances in the symbology of diverse cultures and religions. The Tokyo-born artist grew up immersed in Buddhist and Shinto philosophy, which she says informed her affinity with animism. Finding a utopian harmony between nature and culture, her spiritual interpretations of our physical world expand to create contemplative, open-ended and sacred spaces.

Okamura holds a Master of Fine Arts from the Victorian College of the Arts and a Bachelor of Fine Art from RMIT University. She has received prizes, grants and residencies worldwide, including an Australia Council Career Development Grant, Stuart Black Memorial Scholarship, Ursula Hoff Institute Drawing Award, Lloyd Rees Memorial Youth Art Award, RMIT Honours Travelling Endowment Scholarship, Sanskriti Kendra Residency (India), The Studios at MASS MoCA (United States), Abbotsford Convent Studio Residency, Bayside City Council Residency, and Takt Artist Residency (Germany). Okamura has exhibited her work extensively at public, commercial and artist-run galleries, including Melbourne’s Daine Singer, NotFair Art Fair, Incinerator, Margaret Lawrence, La Trobe Art Institute, C3 Contemporary Art Space, Anna Pappas, Five Walls, Seventh and Langford 120, as well as Tributary Projects (Canberra), Kunstraum Tapir (Berlin, Germany), Japan Foundation (Sydney) and Mølla På Grim (Kristiansand, Norway). Her work is held in private collections across Australia, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, the United States and Japan.