Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre Announces “Spirit Place: The Magnificent Woodcut Art of Naoko Matsubara”

Art doesn’t happen by chance. Artists generate ideas, but they need space and time to develop these ideas. For internationally renowned print artist, Japanese-Canadian Naoko Matsubara, it all comes together in the studio, the place where she can meld inspiration, vision and spirituality. A vibrant new exhibit opening this month at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre (JCCC) Art Gallery, Spirit Place: The Magnificent Woodcut Art of Naoko Matsubara, will explore themes of nature, spirituality, and place. Photographs depicting Matsubara in process in her studio and a short documentary by Bruce Kuwabara featuring the artist, her work, and her studio will be included in this premiere exhibition.

A special opening night event will feature Naoko conversing with renowned architect and founding member of KPMB Architects, Bruce Kuwabara, who will debut a short documentary featuring the artist, her work, and her studio. The opening will also feature the premiere of a mime dance created for this exhibition by Noriko Yamamoto of Momo Gallery. Spirit Place: The Magnificent Woodcut Art of Naoko Matsubara opens on September 25th, 2024 and runs through January 3rd, 2025. at the JCCC, 6 Sakura Way, Toronto. Naoko Matsubara will also present an artist talk on October 5th, 2024, at 7:00 pm as part of Nuit Blanche.

President of the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre, Chris Hope, states:

“The JCCC is honoured to present the premiere of the film and exhibit on Naoko Matsubara’s Spirit Place. Both the show and Matsubara-san herself, are shining examples of our motto, ‘Friendship Through Culture,’ in practice. From high profile exhibitions around the world, to her extensive body of works that reside in the permanent collection at the ROM, with this exhibition and film project, our hope at the JCCC is to help to extend the appreciation of Matsubara-san’s magnificent work, in perpetuity.”

This exhibition is notably the first to focus on Matsubara’s creative process and the influence of nature and the architecture of her studio has on her work. The inspiration that has fueled her remarkable 50-year career is told through 40 dynamic original pieces, alongside her tools as well as photographs depicting Matsubara working in her gallery, chiseling wood, rolling paint on to rollers, pressing the paper.

Naoko says:

“My works can be seen in museums and galleries worldwide, but it is important to acknowledge that everyday I am inspired by the spaces in which I live and work. I modified my living space and designed my studio space and their contents to enhance my creative impulses. Nature is also a key source of inspiration for me: flowers, trees, birds, insects and some animals, all change by day or season. The film crew has beautifully captured the sense of me as an artist being integrated with my environment for over fifty years.”

Since 1960, Matsubara has had over 80 exhibitions around the world. Her exquisite woodcut prints, created using the traditional Japanese woodblock technique of mokuhanga, are among collections at the White House, the British Museum, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Mass., Art Institute of Chicago, and Royal Ontario Museum, among other international institutions. They range from black and white to vibrant colour, intimate to monumental, playful to contemplative are widely known to be joyful pieces that play on form and colour to express mood, emotion, energy, and delight.

With a father who was a Shinto priest, Matsubara was made aware of nature’s influence from an early age in her native Japan. Shinto, or the way of the gods, is the traditional religion of Japan. It honours the presence of kami, or spirits, in nature. It is believed that the kami are all around us.

Like the art and architecture of her birthplace, Japan, it is the beauty and wonders of nature that infuse her with inspiration. So it is of little surprise that the studio, where she does her work, is nestled in the bucolic surroundings of her Japanese garden in Oakville, Ontario – a place where she can be one with nature.

Woodcut art came to Japan during the 8th century and became the primary method of printing from the 11th to the 19th centuries. Matsubara was heavily influenced by Heian period (794 – 1185) Emakimono, Japanese painted scrolls, in particular, the rich colours of the illustrations in the novel, The Tale of Genji. Through her artistic eye, Matsubara’s interprets the world us through the latest interpretation of this centuries-old Japanese art form.