Jamie Okuma

Born in Glendale, California in 1977, Jamie Okuma moved with her family when she was five years old to the La Jolla Indian Reserve in Pauma Valley. Okuma is highly skilled in beadwork, mixed media soft sculpture, and most recently, contemporary Native fashion design. As a child, she learned beadwork from her mother, who was a painter and a graphic artist for MCA Records. Later, Okuma attended Palomar College and then the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Since then, her creations have been featured in numerous publications and in national and international exhibitions, including a show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Her work can also be found in the permanent collections of the Denver Art Museum, the Minneapolis Museum of Art, the National Museum of the American Indian, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.