World-Renowned Brazilian-Born Artist, Lydia Okumura Set to Make Utah Debut at Weber State University

The Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery (http://weber.edu/shawgallery/) is set to host the Utah debut of Latin American-born artist, Lydia Okumura. Utilizing simple materials such as string, glass and paint, Okumura's work dynamically balances line, plane and shadow. The exhibition entitled, "Lydia Okumura: Situations" opens on March 3, 2017 with an opening reception at 7 p.m. The exhibition runs from March 3 - April 7.

"Our gallery is committed to expanding contemporary art discourse by presenting exhibitions of work by significant, yet oftentimes under-represented artists whose work might otherwise not be seen in Utah," said Lydia Gravis, director of the Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery. "We are honored to debut this retrospective of Lydia Okumura's work in the Western United States. Working for almost 50 years, she continues to explore the realms of geometric abstraction through both re-imaginations of past installations and new work," said Gravis.

Okumura's aim as an artist is to actively challenge viewers to question their perception of space through sculptures, installations and works on paper that blur the line between two and three-dimensions. Beginning as a young artist in São Paulo, she studied the Japanese art magazine Bijutsu Techou which introduced her to international movements such as Conceptual Art, Minimalism, Land Art and Arte Povera. These movements, along with Brazilian Concretism and Neo-Concretism, influenced Okumura's work.

"Lydia Okumura is without question a dynamic and integral figure in art history," said Becky Jo Gesteland, Associate Dean of the Telitha E. Lindquist College of Arts & Humanities. "The sharing and discussions around her work will continue to allow our students and the larger community to explore questions of space within a given purpose," said Gesteland.

A native São Paolo, Okumura has exhibited widely in the city and is part of multiple museum collections, but she is much less known in her adopted country of the United States. Lydia Okumura: Situations is the artist's first solo museum exhibition in the United States. On display will be the installation In Front of Light for which Okumura won a prize in the 1977 São Paulo Biennial, along with additional works Okumura will reproduce for the exhibition. These include several wire mesh sculptures recreated from her 1984 solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in São Paulo including the installation Labyrinth for MAM.

The artist will be in Ogden for the opening reception on Fri., March 3 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. The exhibition will run from Fri., March 3, 2017 to Fri., April 7, 2017. The Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery hours of operation are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 12 noon to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. The exhibition will be open during evening hours for the First Friday Art Stroll on Friday, April 7th from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. The gallery is closed on Sundays. "The exhibition, "Lydia Okumura: Situations" is free and open to the public. For more information please visit:
(http://weber.edu/shawgallery/).

About the Artist: Lydia Okumura (b. 1948, São Paulo) lives and works in New York and São Paulo. She was born to a Japanese immigrant family and attended a Japanese school in Brazil-merging two very distinct cultural influences that continue to resonate in her work. She specialized in industrial ceramics and painting, which she displayed at her first solo exhibition at Varanda Galeria in 1968. From 1970-1973, she attended Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts.

In 1970, Okumura began working in a collective based in São Paulo named Equipe3 with artists Genilson Soares and Francisco Inarra. With their installation in the 1973 International Biennial of São Paulo titled Pontos de vista (Points of View), Okumura developed her signature style of extended geometrical compositions in site-specific spaces. She received a four-year scholarship to the Pratt Graphics Center in 1974 and moved to New York.

Okumura first traveled to Japan in 1979 as a resident artist at Wako University, and subsequently has had numerous exhibitions in Japan, including in Today's Art of Brazil, in 1985-an exhibition at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, Japan, where Okumura's work was acquired for the Museum's Permanent Collection. The previous year, Okumura had a solo exhibition at the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art. Beginning in 1989, Okumura started working in the Public Services Department at the United Nations, while simultaneously producing art at her studio in Union Square, New York. Her work is included in numerous collections, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; The Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan; Museo de Art Moderna, Brazil; The Akron Art Museum, Ohio; and Museum of Belas Artes, Venezuela.

Lydia Okumura: Situations was organized by the University at Buffalo Art Galleries, Buffalo, New York. The Exhibition is curated by Rachel Adams, UB Art Galleries Senior Curator. Lydia Okumura: Situations is supported by BROADWAY 1602, UPTOWN & HARLEM, and Buffalo Wire Works.

Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery exhibitions and programs are generously supported by Mark E. & Lola G. Austad Endowment for Visual Arts, the Telitha E. Lindquist College of Arts & Humanities, the Lawrence T. and Janet T. Dee Foundation, the Eccles Foundation, Ogden City Arts, Weber County RAMP, the Kimball Family Foundation, Tim and Stephanie Harpst, Jack and Bonnie Wahlen and Jim and MaryAnn Jacobs.

About the Telitha E. Lindquist College of Arts & Humanities
The Weber State University Telitha E. Lindquist College of Arts & Humanities teaches students to excel as they seek, understand, question and express complexities critical to the experience of being human. The Lindquist College of Arts & Humanities offers five degree programs in the following areas: Communication, English, Foreign Language, Performing Arts and Visual Art & Design. Master's degrees are also offered in Communication and English. The college serves nearly 2,000 undergraduate majors and 200 graduate students. The Lindquist College of Arts & Humanities is the Western region's foremost institution for student-centered teaching and research which investigates the human experience and aims to educate global citizens who are responsible, creative and critical artists, performers and communicators. For more information please visit our website (http://www.weber.edu/cah), or online at (www.facebook.com/WSUartsandhumanities).

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