Yuri Shimojo is a Tokyo-born, contemporary Japanese painter who lives and works between New York City and Kyoto. 

The last descendant of her samurai clan, Shimojo lost all of her immediate family members by the age of 29. She has always used painting to express the interconnected emotions of impermanence. Using traditional Japanese watercolor or ground SUMI and SHU ink, her work combines the abstract and the surreal, often playfully and always evocative of the desire for universal compassion. 

With minimal formal training in fine art, her style is grounded in the practice of classical Japanese dance and other traditional arts. Her publications include a memoir of her unique childhood with her late family. She also spent many years studying Hawaiian healing practices and spirituality. These experiences of moving between cultures have influenced her work throughout her life and continue to bring new sources of inspiration.

She has exhibited in the U.S. and Japan and is in private collections around the world.

Curriculum Vitae

下條ユリ

東京三鷹市生まれ。１０代の頃より雑誌やTVなど多くのメディアに登場し、イラストレーターとして９０年代東京サブカルチャー・シーンにて人気を得る。

相次ぐ家族の他界をきっかけに１９９７年アメリカへ移住。NYとハワイを拠点に自然の癒しと精神性に焦点を当てた抽象画を、画家として発表するようになる。現在はNYのスタジオと京都に構えた「お山のアトリエ」を行き来しながら生命の尊さと儚さをテーマにした作品を作り続けている。

主な著書に、波瀾に富んだ生い立ちを綴った自叙伝『ちいさならくがき』がある。ドキュメンタリー映画『Colour of Ink』(カラー・オブ・インク）に出演。

The New York Times, The T List, Memento Mori, 2021

Boston Globe, Memento Mori, 2021

Unbroken Line
A Short Film at the artist’s studio in NYC during the Covid-19 lockdown
by Toddy Stewart, 2020

Memento Mori
A Conversation on Art & Healing : US Exhibition Premier  
by Duke Arts, 2021

Sumi and Shu
A short film about the artist’s practice of Japanese ink
by Toddy Stewart, 2016