The Japan Foundation Gallery will exhibit the debut of Okumura’s beautiful wistful works from 11 – 25 September, transporting viewers to a world above and beyond.

Japanese architecture has always been praised for is aesthetic sense of simplicity, modesty and serenity. The Japanese call it wabi sabi, meaning elegant simplicity and its commitment to austere refinement. Okumura’s work carries the cherished notion and applies it with reverence to his timber canvas.

His works are a new form of traditional Japanese paintings fused with the knowledge he has gained from specialising in the preservation of important historical buildings. Interweaving elements from both fields, his finely-tuned sensitivity towards the raw pattern of the wood becomes Okumura’s unique point-of-difference in distinguishing his art from other wood-based paintings.

“In this exhibition, I would like to pursue the possibility of Japanese paintings as artworks on wood, incorporating the Japanese architectural aesthetic sense of appreciating wood texture. I am restoring techniques used in modern times on Zelkova timber, and trying out a method that interprets wood texture as background and scenery. I am also using current techniques as a means to consider the harmony and composition of my painted subject matter with the flow of the wood grain,” explains Okumura.

Okumura completed a Master’s Degree in Architecture and another Master’s Degree in Preservation of Cultural Assets, specialising in the Preservation and Restoration of Japanese Paintings. He was employed at the Japan Cultural Heritage Consultancy in 1998 managing the maintenance of nationally designated Important Cultural Properties such as the Tsuyama Castle in Okayama. In 2008, Okumura transferred over to Appointed Researcher for Japanese-style painters within the Consultancy.

“I think my works are freshly unique because of how it steps into the history of the long-cultivated Japanese aesthetic sense and encompasses techniques from Japan’s culturally important properties. I am reconstructing the category of traditional Japanese paintings.”