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Chelsea Exhibit to Highlight New York Women

By Mathew Katz | August 30, 2011 5:14pm
'Coronation,' a portrait that will be featured in Tim Okamura's upcoming exhibition.
'Coronation,' a portrait that will be featured in Tim Okamura's upcoming exhibition.
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Tim Okamura

MANHATTAN — New York may have all kinds of royalty, but one artist's exhibition has coronated a new kind of queen for the city — ones that live in the outer boroughs.

Artist Tim Okamura is tackling the diversity of New York City's women at a new exhibit opening in Chelsea next week.

"Bronx • Brooklyn • Queens" is a collection of life-sized works that focus in the raw beauty of New York women in the three titular boroughs. Okamura's first solo exhibition in New York focuses on what he calls the "queens" of the boroughs in each painting.

The Japanese-Canadian artist's photorealistic oil portraits have fascinated art-lovers all over the world, including celebrities Uma Thurman, Ethan Hawke and John Mellencamp.

The portraits largely feature women of color and the gritty urban motifs that they inhabit. Okamura has been acclaimed by art critics for his style of painting, which causes the subject's clothing and hair to almost jump off of the canvas.

Okamura's paintings will be featured for a month at the Lyons Wier Gallery, 542 W. 24th St., starting September 8.