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Art Talks in Niagara

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Naoko-Matsubara

The St. Catharines Public Art Advisory Committee is hosting a lecture series that is free to the public and presented by the creators of the art featured throughout the city.

Designed to educate the public on the art that accents their environment and to provide a new perspective on the pieces being featured, the series will showcase the work of Laura Moore and Naoko Matsubara, both of whom currenlty installations on display on public properties.

Laura Moore is the creator of the Kernel Memory installation currently on display at City Hall on the east side of the front lawn, one of many displays that she has had in high profile locations including the Ontario Science Centre, Siena Art Institute in Italy, Shoshana Wayne Gallery in California, Peak Gallery in Toronto, Anna Leonowens Gallery in Nova Scotia and more.

The second lecture is being delivered on May 3 by Naoko Matsubara the artist who created the Games of Water painting, currently on display at the St. Catharines Kiwanis Aquatics Centre. Her work is an exciting addition to the St. Catharines landscape as her prestigious art is featured in the Boston Museum of Fine Art, The White House, the National Museums of Modern Art in Kyoto and Tokyo, the Royal Ontario Museum and more. Matsubara specializes in paintings, single-sheet woodcuts and murals.

About the artists:

Laura Moore has an MFA from York University, a BFA from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and a Diploma of Art from Fanshawe College.

Laura is a transient member of Studio Pescarella in Pietrasanta, Italy where she spends periodic time carving large-scale stone.  She is an international artist, has been exhibiting her work since 1998 and has exhibited her work in venues such as; the St. Catharines City Hall Sculpture Garden, Ontario Science Centre, Thames Art Gallery in Chatham ON., Siena Art Institute in Siena Italy, Shoshana Wayne Gallery in Santa Monica, CA., USA, Peak Gallery in Toronto, ON., Stride Gallery in Calgary AB. and Anna Leonowens Gallery in Halifax, NS.

In September, 2011 Laura carved stone at the Uxbridge Sculpture Symposium in Uxbridge, creating a work that became part of the Uxbridge Public Sculpture Garden’s permanent collection.

Naoko Matsubara is a graduate of the Kyoto Academy of Fine Arts, was a Fulbright scholar at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and was an invited special student at the Royal College of Art in London. She taught at the Pratt Graphic Centre in New York and the University of Rhode Island. She moved to Canada in 1972 and established her studio in Oakville. She remains extremely active as an artist of woodcut prints, collage, painting and sculpture. Naoko Matsubara has exhibited throughout the world, and has published 20 portfolios and books. She is a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (1981), has an honorary doctorate of Fine Art from Chatham University, Pittsburgh (2009), and received the 2010 Alumni Distinguished Achievement Award from Carnegie Mellon University. Her works are in public art collections around the world.

The Author

Allie Hughes is the wine and culinary contributor to Naturally in Niagara, feasting on the decadent experience that is life in this region. With a fine wine sensibility honed at the International Sommelier Guild, Allie is taking the journey of Niagara by the glass with you with each new taste. Allie is also the creative mind behind the marketing of the Canadian Food and Wine Institute, and owner of Hughes & Co., a boutique social strategy firm.

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