Biographies
Kazuo Nakamura, the most introverted artist in the Painters Eleven, was born in Vancouver in 1926. Nakamura was a late
starter in art, not entering the Central technical School until he was 22 (attending between 1948-1951). Nakamura’s work
and artistic ambition was unique from the other members of Painters Eleven, rather than a clear focus on the existential
abstract expression he sought to create images of the natural world the view point of mathematics or a scientific lens.
Both complex and contemplative his work reflects a man with an intense sense of craftsmanship and patience.
His fascination with science and mathematics is evident in all his work through his use of patterns, linear perspectives,
calculations, carefully hand-rendered and laborious processes, all which make his art the more powerful.
Nakamura’s delicate works also pay tribute to his Japanese heritage and demand to be seen as some of the most evocative in Canadian art today. Kazuo Nakamura passed away in Toronto in 2002.
Kazuo Nakamura, Into Space.
1957, Oil on Masonite
Image Source: www.cuttsgallery.com
Kazuo Nakamura, Pine Forest.
1956, Oil on Masonite
Image Source: www.cuttsgallery.com