Osvaldo Cruz, Brazil, 1948 \ Lives and works in New York

Okumura had her first solo exhibition in 1968 and later was part of Equipe3 (1970-1979) along with artists Francisco Iñarra and Genilson Soares. She contributed in a fundamental way to the development of ephemeral site-specific installations and many of them are documented in MAC-USP, Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo,
Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, Hall Art Foundation – Germany, Metropolitan NY, MoMA (New York) and other museums.

First impressions of Lydia Okumura’s individual work can easily be misleading. For almost 50 years, the Brazilian-born, New York based artist has been investigating the interstice between two and three-dimensional space through precise, site-specific installations. Mostly using acrylic paint, cotton string, painted aluminum sheets, charcoal and pencil, Okumura constructs abstract geometric compositions that project from the walls into three-dimensional space. Although her practice can be framed within the minimalist tradition, op art is also at play. Through modest interventions, Okumura enhances our awareness of our bodily presence in the exhibition space.

In 2024, Lydia Okumura presented a solo show that took place simultaneously at Martins&Montero and Nara Roesler in São Paulo, and in 2023, she presented a solo show at the Jaqueline Martins Gallery (Brussels). Her work has recently been the subject of extensive retrospectives at the Hall Art Foundation (2022) and the University of Buffalo (2016). In recent years she has also participated in important institutional exhibitions at The Americas Society (New York), São Paulo’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC, São Paulo), Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac (London), ZKM Center for Art and Media (Karlsruhe, Germany), Instituto Figueiredo Ferraz (Ribeirão Preto, Brazil), Hall Foundation (Derneburg, Germany), MuBE (São Paulo, Brazil) among others.