Satoko Okuno: Painting a World Where Guardians Still Exist

What if Myth Was a Feeling? Inside Okuno’s Animistic Universe

Satoko Okuno (Yokohama, near Tokio -1991) Japanese artist based in Los Angeles whose bold visual language blends mixed-media painting, ceramic sculpture, and printmaking into emotionally charged realms of protection and play.

Glazed ceramic guardian figures by Satoko Okuno displayed on pedestals, radiating spiritual calm. — Exhibition view from Satoko Okuno’s undergraduate showcase at ArtCenter College of Design - where painted and sculpted guardians watched over the room in quiet solidarity. @satoko_artwork⁠ Photo Credit: Trinh Tran⁠

Installation view of Satoko Okuno’s undergraduate show with colorful guardian animals lining the gallery wall — **Photographs capturing Satoko Okuno during her undergraduate showcase at the Art Center College of Design.** @satoko_artwork⁠ *Photo Credit: Trinh Tran⁠ -* Satoko Okuno's artistic vision is anchored in the portrayal of animals and mythological creatures, drawing inspiration from various sources such as her two cats, encounters at the zoo, and ancient art forms like Greek pottery and Egyptian sculptures. Her vibrant mixed-media paintings, adorned with impasto textures, and glazed stoneware breathe life into these creatures, establishing them as guardians within her art and inviting viewers into a comforting and safe realm. This profound exploration of guardianship is rooted in Okuno’s Japanese upbringing, steeped in the cultural richness of Shintoism—the belief that all things, ranging from natural materials, animals, and humans alike, have a spirit. Having grown up with traditional Japanese sculptures of guardian animals, often placed in front of shrines to bring safety and protect inhabitants, she recasts those animals as central characters in her modern-day sanctuaries, providing solace and gentleness in a world often laden with life's traumas.⁠

Her creatures — at once whimsical and sacred — echo her Shinto roots, where all things carry spirit, and manifest as vibrant, tactile guardians that comfort rather than confront.

With themes of spirituality, mythic animals, and emotional refuge, Okuno's style is both protective and disarmingly tender, making her one of the most vital voices in contemporary symbolic art.

A glimpse into a soft sanctuary - Okuno’s creatures on display, each one a vessel of comfort and quiet power. Photo Credit: Trinh Tran⁠

Not All Guardians Wear Armor - Some Wear Glaze: About the work of Satoko Okuno

In a world that often feels chaotic and spiritually bankrupt, Satoko Okuno crafts a counter-reality: one filled with soft protectors, ancestral echoes, and playful mythologies.

These creatures don’t just stare back—they stand watch.

The Los Angeles-based Japanese artist conjures a visual universe where guardians still roam—not as armored titans or religious icons, but as curious cats, bulbous beasts, and hybrid spirits. There is something ancient and deeply contemporary in these forms, like whispers from temple walls retold in pastel shrieks and glazed stares.

**Satoko Okuno:** Canadian Lynx (Watch Us Walk),2024 - Acrylic, oil, oil stick on canvas 48 × 36 × 1 1/2 in | 121.9 × 91.4 × 3.8 cm - Courtesy the Artist and The Trophy Room LA @thetrophyroomla⁠

The first thing you feel when entering her world is not awe, but safety. It’s the feeling of being watched over—not judged, not evaluated, simply kept. Her creatures are alert but not aggressive, surreal but never cynical.

A sleepy-eyed feline, rendered in saturated strokes with impasto textures, appears both comical and noble.

A horned figure in ceramic might be smirking, or solemn, or both. And beneath the surface, a language of touch and presence emerges: thick brushstrokes like fur, glossy glaze like dew on skin, color like warmth you didn’t know you missed.

new faces in contemporary art — Satoko Okuno insight her Studio (c)Heather Rasmus

satoko okuno — Studio: Satoko Okuno (c)Heather Rasmus

Okuno’s work sits somewhere between shrine and studio, between animal and animism. Deeply informed by Shinto beliefs—where rocks, rivers, animals, even tools carry a spirit—her pieces breathe with an uncanny intimacy. The idea of guardianship is more than symbolic: it is embodied, physical, tender. You don’t just see her works; you feel held by them.

Informed by visits to zoos, her two cats, and the quiet magnetism of ancient Greek and Egyptian visual culture, Okuno channels a lineage of animal iconography into something disarmingly personal.

Colorful ceramic sculpture by Satoko Okuno resembling a mythical cat-guardian, glazed and alert — Satoko Okuno Studio View (c)Heather Rasmus

Impasto painting of a whimsical beast, painted in bold strokes and warm hues. — Studio: Satoko Okuno (c)Heather Rasmus

Having grown up around traditional Japanese sculptures of guardian animals placed at shrine entrances, she reimagines these figures not as rigid relics but as modern-day companions—soft, spiritual protectors for a world in need of gentleness. These aren’t general archetypes.

They’re companions. They look out for you in the same way she once needed to be looked after. Her practice, in this sense, becomes a soft act of resistance: against isolation, against indifference, against the loss of mystery.

Satoko Okuno’s studio view with multiple guardian figures lined up like shrine protectors — Studio: Satoko Okuno (c)Heather Rasmus

Close-up of ceramic creature with bright eyes and humorous expression, by Satoko Okuno — Studio: Satoko Okuno (c)Heather Rasmus

There’s also humor here—a kind that never slips into irony. The lopsided symmetry, the bulbous forms, the bright-eyed stare that teeters between derpy and divine—Okuno knows how to laugh with her creatures, not at them. That lightness gives her work a deeper strength: it doesn't posture, it comforts.

Hybrid animal sculpture combining feline and horned elements, standing protectively. — Satoko Okuno Ceramics (c)Heather Rasmus

The result is a body of work that exists not just to be seen, but to be returned to. Each glance offers a different mood, like visiting an old friend. Her paintings and sculptures do not demand attention—they earn trust.

Key Themes

Guardianship & protection
Spiritual animism (Shinto)
Emotional refuge & vulnerability
Humor and myth
Animals as emotional stand-ins

Notable Series / Visual Motifs

Soft, mythic protectors
Hybrid animals with spiritual flair
Impasto brush textures, glazed ceramics
Guardian-like postures (seated, alert, offering)2

Satoko Okuno "Whispers of kindred souls" Solo show by Satoko Okuno @satoko_artwork⁠ The Trophy Room LA @thetrophyroomla⁠ Image Permission and courtesy of the artist and Gallery

Positioning in Contemporary Art

Okuno is part of a vital new movement of artists revisiting animism, myth, and personal symbology as tools of emotional repair.

Her work resonates with global audiences craving both tenderness and mystery, standing in contrast to cynical minimalism or conceptual over-explanation.