Shintaro Okamoto

is the creative force behind OKAMOTO STUDIO, a NYC-based artist collective best known to produce artful installations and performances out of crystal clear ice since founded in 2003. A second generation ice sculptor whose father Takeo is long recognized for his early contribution to the art form in America, Shintaro embraces the craft and its business as his calling to introduce ice that is most unique and relevant to today’s audience. From designing the runway for Zac Posen to collaborating on the display window with Barneys New York to competing alongside Chef Morimoto in Iron Chef America, Shintaro thrives on offering new ways to play the ephemeral quality of ice as the perfect metaphor for the ‘here and the now.’

Shintaro’s love for both the urban spectacle and the natural wonder is deeply rooted in his bicultural upbringing via his Japanese heritage and his childhood years growing up in Alaska. A life long painter and a wildlife fanatic, Shintaro has received numerous art awards since a young age including the Presidential Scholars in the Arts that led to a Fine Arts degree at Brown University. During his following MFA program at Hunter College in New York, Shintaro first tried ice sculpture as his means to experiment. Today, his ideas about ice continues to carve new ways to communicate and interact, to keep function and form both fluid, to cement life with ice evermore inevitable.