the
artist

BIOGRAPHY

After the bombing of Pearl Harbour during WWII, Sharon Yamamoto’s parents, who came from different parts of California, were relocated to an internment camp for Japanese-Americans in the Arizona desert where they met each other, endured the war together and eventually married. Upon their release they moved to the city of Chicago, Illinois.

Sharon Yamamoto was born sansei (third generation Japanese-American). Her childhood home was shared with three generations of her family on both sides. It was a place where traditional Japanese creative activities were kept very much alive. Flower-arranging, doll-making, sewing, origami, carpentry, music and painting were essential parts of everyday life. From these traditional Japanese crafts to medieval art to Disney, it is narrative art, its symbolism and universal themes, that form the driving force behind Sharon Yamamoto’s work.

From the age of twelve, Yamamoto attended classes at The Art Institute of Chicago Junior School and it was here that she first painted and drew from a live model. An enthusiastic art instructor encouraged her to enter a national art scholarship competition and she won the art scholarship offered by Illinois Wesleyan University. Yamamoto graduated Suma Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and teaching degree. During her final college year she traveled to London to study the Pre-Raphaelites at The Victoria and Albert Museum. Here she met her life-long partner and soon after graduating in 1969, she moved to London and married.

Attending life classes at Heatherley’s School of Art, Yamamoto was invited to join a Self-Realization group at the College of Psychic Studies. This lasted for sixteen years and remains one of the most important influences in her life and underpins the content of her artwork.

In 1986 Sharon Yamamoto began renting a studio in London’s East End and remained at ACME Studios for ten years, exhibiting at seven open studio events. By 1995 she had successful solo exhibitions in London including the Black Bull Gallery, the Alba Gallery and the Atlantis Gallery.

Relocating to Florida in 1995 presented new opportunities and Sharon Yamamoto exhibited in a variety of venues. Florida exhibitions include Ryals Gallery, Boca Raton; Brickell Square Gallery, Miami; Wallflower Gallery, Miami; Gallery Vincent, Miami. In 2001 she opened her own gallery in Miami Beach and that year she was awarded the Best in Show prize at Art Fest, Ft. Lauderdale.

In 2003 Sharon Yamamoto returned to the UK. Exhibitions have included the Ice House Gallery, London; The Hepsibah Gallery, London and Galeria Dasto, Spain.

Sharon Yamamoto’s work has been critically acclaimed in magazines such as New Art International and Art Connoisseur and she has achieved a wide international following. Outside of the UK and the USA, her work is in private and public collections in France, Holland, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Puerto Rico and Japan. She is the recipient of five major awards including membership of the Fine Art Trades Guild. She now resides in Henley-on-Thames in the UK.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Since early childhood my passion was to make pictures. Children’s books and films taught me about pictorial communication before an education in classical art.

When I was twelve, my parents enrolled me in classes at The Art Institute of Chicago Junior School, which is where I first learned to paint and draw from a live model. Although I do not depend on working from a live model, the human figure remains my favourite subject. People embody life in the most unique and expressive way, which excites me.

Since I began working from my imagination, a narrative style has developed unconsciously. I learn a lot when I paint and draw and many questions arise as I work. What is the meaning behind the human experience? I believe meaning exists, and I’m looking for it all the time. What appears on the canvas is always a surprise. The figures and animals in my work are like friends, avatars of love in everyday living.