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

The last descendant of her samurai clan, who lost all of her immediate family members before the age of 30, Shimojo has always used painting to express the interconnected emotions of joy and pain. 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. 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.