Nobuo Kubota
Hokusai Revisited
June 5 to July 18, 2010
Opening reception and performance Friday, June 4, 7-9
p.m., is open to the public.
During the summer months in Kelowna
it is natural to develop a heightened awareness of the huge presence and
proximity of Okanagan Lake. What more appropriate exhibition would there be, therefore, than this
single, large installation of a giant wave form, made from wood?
Toronto-based, senior Canadian artist Nobuo Kubota (b. 1932) salutes the
19th Century printmaker Katsushika Hokusai and his famous print, The Great
Wave off Kanagawa, in this work titled Hokusai Revisited. Playing over the
elements of the wooden form will be video projections of cascading,
coloured waves, giving the work a full and mesmerizing sense of life and
motion.
Kubota was trained as an architect in
Toronto. After working in that field for ten years, he gradually came to the
realization that he needed to pursue his own inner artistic vision. He
then began exhibiting work that involved sculptural installations, as well
as sound components. In 1970 he traveled to
Japan for a year to delve into that part of his identity, and lived as a novice
monk in a Buddhist monastery - which greatly influenced his work as an
artist. Kubota was an integral member of the neo-Dada scene that centred
around Toronto
’s
Isaacs Gallery in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He played alto sax in the Artists’
Jazz Band, whose members were other artists from the Isaacs stable. In the
1980s and 1990s he added mime and dance to his repertoire when creating
performance works.
Nobuo Kubota was given a solo show at the
Kelowna Art Gallery in 1999 called The Exploration of
Possibility. He performed a memorable
sound piece at the opening event for this show. We are extremely pleased
to be welcoming him back here eleven years later, and are delighted he
will be performing here once again.
Proudly sponsored by 
Installation of Hokusai
Revisited, by Nobuo Kubota, at the Kelowna Art Gallery, 2010.
Photography: Kyle L. Poirier
Also showing in The
Front project space:
Sound
Project with Nobuo Kubota
June 6 to July 11, 2010
