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Born in Japan in 1983, currently Shoko Okumura lives and works in Milan Italy.
Recipient of a distinguished government scholarship, in 2008 graduates with a Degree in Traditional Japanese Painting at Tokyo University of the Arts. Following her degree and subsequent move to Florence Italy to learn the art of fresco restorations, a newfound understanding of fresco techniques and colors led to experimenting and applying Italian pigments to Japanese painting techniques, which often utilizes metal supports such as gold or silver leaf.

The key aim is to represent the relationship between human beings and nature. Seasons passing, colors waning and sounds merging towards a renewed harmony have always, across all cultures, been a source both of art inspiration through its myriad of expressions and of deep emotions for souls open to the world’s wonders.

This style of painting is more demanding than what appears at first glance. An intent gazer must mesh palpable first impressions with subtle hints and allusions, thereby expanding one’s extrinsic perceptive vision, the image within the frame, to the inner self – of both artist and observer - to which the image truly appeals.

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Education

2008

Bachelor of Japanese paintings - Tokyo University of the Arts

2011

Master of Restoration of affreschi paintings - International University of Art – Florence, Italy

 

2008

Winner of the Japanese "Horita Scholarship Foundation"​

2010

Winner of Japanese Government Scholarship for Art studies

Exhibition

​2023

Solo exhibition "Sacri legni" Manifiesto Blanco Gallery / Milan, Italy

Solo exhibition in Mitsukoshi Art Weeks / Tokyo, Japan

Affordable Art Fair London, UK

Affordable Art Fair Hong Kong

Affordable Art Fair Hamburg, Germany 

Affordable Art Fair Stockholm, Sweden

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2022

Solo exhibition "Blossoms of Hope" Shinjuku Takashimaya Art Gallery, Tokyo Japan

Affordable Art Fair Bruxelles, Belgium

Art Fair (un)fair Milano, Italy

Affordable Art Fair Hong Kong

Affordable Art Fair Hamburg, Germany 

2021

Duo exhibition Affordable Art Fair / Hamburg,Germany

Duo exhibition "Trasparenze fuggevoli della natura" villa Zari / Brianza, Italy

Affordable Art Fair Amsterdam, Netherlands

Affordable Art Fair Bruxelles, Belgium

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2020

Solo exhibition "Finestre di Luce nei boschi" Manifiesco Blanco gallery, Milan

Solo exhibition "Universo Fluttuante" Vision Quest 4 rosso gallery, Genova

On-line Affordable Art Fair 

Group exhibition"Bino-yokan”2020 Takashimaya Art Gallery (national tour exhibition) / Japan

2019

Solo exhibition "Trasparenze crepuscolari" Centro di cultura giapponese, Milan

Duo exhibition "Seifu-meigetsu" Takashimaya Shinjuku Art Gallery, Tokyo

Group exhibition "Stati d'Arte" Fidelia Palace / Spello                

Group exhibition"Finalist exhibition Arteamcup 2019" Nobel palace / Sanremo 

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2018

Solo exhibition"Natura sussurata" Corte degli Artisti gallery / Milan

Group exhibition"Ko-kin" Paraventi giapponesi Nobili gallery / Milan

Group exhibition "S’io m’intuassi, come tu t’immii” MostraMi, Fabbrica del vapore / Milan

Group exhibition "Arte giapponese" Lante Palace / Rome

               

2017

Solo exhibition "Natura sussurrata" Frammenti d'Arte gallery / Rome  

Solo exhibition "Natura sussurrata" Studio Arti Floreali / Rome

Group exhibition"Eterne stagione" Monferrato Palace / Alessandria

Group exhibiton "Arte Migrante" la torre Viscontea / Lecco

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2016

Group exhibition "Domani" Tokyo National Museum / Tokyo

Group exhibition "Kimigayo" MABIC / Maranello

Group exhibition "Arte giapponese" Art space spazioD/ Lecco        

           

2015

Solo exhibition "Essenza della natura" Arte Giappone gallery, Milan

Group exhibition "Esopo" Abantgarde tattoo and Art gallery / Sesto San Giovanni 

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2014

Group exhibition "Poetessa Rengetsu" Arte Giappone gallery / Milan

 

2013

Solo exhibition "Kacho-Fugetsu" Spazio porpora gallery / Milan

2012

Solo exhibition "Arte nella natura" Asteria Center / Milan

Group exhibition "Beauty japan" Japan Matsuri fair / Bellinzona, Swissland

 

2010

Solo exhibition Lucca comics festival, Romano palace / Lucca​

Other works / Collaborations 

2023

Collaboration with HOSOO, Artwork for Hotel Bulgari Tokyo

 

2022

Collaboration with Serapian Jewelry box Sho-chiku-bai for HOMO faver, Venice Italy

 

2021

Collaboration with CABANA wall paper, Milan Italy

 

2020

Book cover for "Kado - way of flowers" of Luca Maracciotti

Collaboration with TOMA Shoes for Milan Fashion Week 

 

2019

Collaboration with TOMA Shoes for Milan Fashion Week

Drowings with Sumi ink realized to the book "La vita del Poeta Basho e i suoi Haiku"

 

2016

Presentation "Materials of Japanese traditional paintings" at Luciana Matalon Foundation / Milan  

 

2013

Art works made the cover of five Japanese food magazines / Italy

 

2012

Presentation "Traditional techniques and materials of Nihonga" at Wow Comics Museum / Milan

Presentation "How was born the Manga through Hokusai" at Lucca Comics

 

2011

Illustrated artworks for “Vanity Fair” Magazine / Italy 

 

2010

Holding Japanese traditional paintings courses at Japanese culture center, still does / Milan

Awards

2015

Winner of "The Adachi Contemporary Ukiyoe Award" , Tokyo, Japan

 

2018

Finalist, contemporary painting competition "S’io m’intuassi, come tu t’immii”

2019

Winner of Focus Genova award and Cabana award of Contemporary Art competition “Arteam Cup 2019”

Seasons passing, colors waning and sounds merging towards a renewed harmony have always, across all cultures, been a source both of art inspiration through its myriad of expressions and of deep emotions for souls open to the world’s wonders.

The Japanese love of nature and its manifestations is well recognized.


This style of painting is more demanding than what appears at first glance. An intent gazer must mesh palpable first impressions with subtle hints and allusions, thereby expanding one’s extrinsic perceptive vision, the image within the frame, to the inner self – of both artist and observer - to which the image truly appeals.

Things fleeting, seasons passing and cosmic life, in short the feeling of “impermanence” that renders the spiritual equation so unique and fascinating, is a deepfelt sentiment within the Soul of Japan; which most certainly finds its utmost expressiveness in the depiction of the twilights, whose moments of transient luminosity arouse silent and wondersome expectation.

The “melancholy of things” (mono no aware) however does not impede from locking its essentiality in the moment, unrepeatable and so, in its own right, permanent.

More so than a canon of beauty, mono no aware is a way of approaching the world typical of the Japanese spirit, that is not conjectured upon, but rather is lived, and which also finds expression in painting, of which

Shoko Okumura has for years been an envoy and, in a certain sense, messenger.

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