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Maker
Tim Okamura
(b. 1968, Edmonton, Canada)
Date2011
MediumOil and spray paint on canvas
Dimensions88 in. x 92 in. (223.5 cm x 233.7 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase with funds provided by Wellesley College Friends of Art
Object number2011.15
Status
Not on viewRightsCopyright is retained in accordance with U.S. Copyright laws
Photo creditDavis Museum at Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA
More InformationTrained at the Alberta College of Art and Design and at the School of Visual Arts in New York, Okamura approaches portraiture through the conventions of realism. He distinguishes his work through his choice of subject and setting—he paints his friends, primarily African-American women, in Brooklyn. As with European and American portrait traditions, Okamura’s urban mise-en-scene carries symbolic information: elaborated by language and graffiti, the works are inflected by his interest in hip hop. In this double portrait, part of his Brooklyn Mythology series, twinned African-American women stand looking directly at the viewer, hand-in-hand, before a loading dock. The formal strength of the composition is enhanced by the thick impasto of the surface and the addition of sprayed and dripped elements. Loading was Okamura’s first painting to enter a museum collection.
V ValeScott WilliamsLaurel BraitmanDana SmithDave SchubertBill DanielDuskin DrumBarry McGeeChris JohansonMonica CanilaoErick LyleIvy Jeanne McClellandSy LoadyKottie PalomaRebecca GiordanoTobin YellandKal SpelletichChristine ShieldsSpy EmersonMarshall WeberBochay DrumMission Mini ComixFred RinneJohanna JacksonArnold KempMarshall WeberMultiple ArtistsBooklyn Artists Alliance
2011
Object number: 2013.111