Talks & Tours

Kazuo Nakamura: Influence and Legacy

Feb 4, 2023, 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM

This event is open to the public, but registration encouraged.

Join us for a conversation about the lasting impact and legacy of artist Kazuo Nakamura. The discussion will be led by panelists Louise Noguchi (artist), Bryce Kanbara (artist and recent Governor General Award recipient), and John Hatch (art historian). Kazuo Nakamura laid the groundwork for younger generations of Japanese Canadian artists and achieved great success in his lifetime. This event compliments the current exhibition at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Kazuo Nakamura: Universal Pattern, on view until March 5th.

Refreshments will be served.

Louise Noguchi was born in Toronto, and has been active in the Toronto art community since 1981. Her work has been included in solo and group exhibitions across Canada and internationally. A selection of these exhibitions follows: “Das zweite Gesicht”, Deutsches Museum, Munich (2002); “Track Records,” Oakville Galleries, Oakville, and the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Ottawa (1997-1999); “Modus Operandi,” Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, and the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo, Japan (1996); and, “Louise Noguchi Selected Works: 1982 – 1985,” The Power Plant, Toronto (1989).

Dr. John G. Hatch is associate professor of art history at Western University in London Ontario. He received his doctorate from the University of Essex in art history and theory. His area of research is twentieth-century European and American art and theory, with a particular interest in the points of convergence between art and science. His articles have examined the work of Robert Smithson, Cindy Sherman, Francis Bacon, Frantisek Kupka, Shi Zhiying, amongst others, and most recently the German photographer Thomas Ruff. He is the Art Canada Institute author of monographs on Paterson Ewen and Kazuo Nakamura and is currently working on his third title examining the life and work of Doris McCarthy.

Kanbara has been working for nearly five decades: across media in painting, printmaking and sculpture, and as a curator and arts administrator. He was a founding member and the first administrator of Hamilton Artists Inc. (known then as Hamilton Artists’ Co-op) in the late 1970s and early ‘80s, going on to hold curatorial positions at Burlington Art Centre; Art Gallery of Hamilton; Glenhyrst Art Gallery of Brant; JC Gallery at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre (Toronto). He was also Executive Director of the Toronto Chapter, National Association of Japanese Canadians, Chair of the NAJC Endowment Fund and National Executive member. As one of the first to open a gallery space along Hamilton’s James Street North in the early aughts, Kanbara has been the proprietor of you me gallery since 2003. In 2021, he won a Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts for his countless contributions.

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