Gloria Kagawa


Region: Ontario
Generation:
Born 1947, Colorado


Bio

Gloria Kagawa is an established printmaker, painter, and mixed media artist whose works have earned her several awards and are included in a number of public, private, and corporate collections. Gloria has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in North and South America, Europe, and Asia.

Gloria grew up in Denver, Colorado, during the 1950s and 1960s, and eventually immigrated to Canada as a war resister.

Her professional art practice began in 1982 after she graduated from the University of Waterloo with an Honours B.A. in Fine Arts. She works from her farm house studio near New Hamburg, Ontario.

Artist Statement

Thematically, my work investigates our relationships with our surroundings. My intent is to reveal the human condition and our physical and emotional states by bringing social issues to light through depictions of our environment and architectural structures: our homes, buildings, and shelters. Architecture plays a major role in my art, symbolizing human presence. My practice of overlapping and layering images facilitates multiple time and space references. My printmaking methods are both traditional and experimental, using oil and water-based inks on 100% rag paper and fine Japanese papers. The mixed media work encompasses painting, drawing, photography, and printmaking. I studied Japanese calligraphy and Chinese brush painting and occasionally incorporate these elements into my works, as well as asemic writing. My art is multi-layered, with themes of celebration, socio-political commentary, human and environmental struggles. It is about emotions, the individual: the world as I see it. It is about the way we live and the structures we build. In our age of turmoil, it is a means of creating new visions, which facilitates my search for inner calm.