In the Gallery - Prairie Center for the Arts

Yoshito Nozaki

Yoshito Nozaki was born in Kagoshima, Japan in 1948.

Growing up in a city surrounded by mountains, he spent most of his time outdoors. He would often visit his uncle’s pottery studio as well, where he not only learned how to make works of art with his bare hands, but also create patterns. Nozaki attended Tama College of Art in Tokyo, where he studied graphic design and photography. From 1973 to 1977, he worked as a photographer for the Japan Design Center, creating a number of advertisements for Toyota, Nikon, and Toshiba. Nozaki also traveled to many places around the world during this time, and took photographs that focused upon nature. Many of his photographs were taken at zoos ( in the United States and Thailand ) where he saw many interesting animals. It was at this time that Nozaki began to generate his own ideas about photography as an art form. He founded the Yoshito Nozaki Photo Studio in 1977, and has since had many exhibitions, including From Three Windows ( 1992 ) at the Kodak Studio in Tokyo and Fanta Zoo ( 2007 ) at the Canon Photo Gallery in Tokyo and Nagoya.

January 2009 - Tracy McCabe Stewart - Contemporary Art Quilts

Tracy McCabe Stewart

“My work centers on the patterns, colors and textures of the natural world. I am drawn to the decomposition and evolution of objects: spring growth, the erosion of land by waterways, corroded metal, the destruction of wood by insects, fungal growths; the record left from the interaction of objects, elements, creatures, and cultures through their cycles of destruction and rebirth.

I capture these images in photographs and use the pictures in the initial stage of design or use them as direct material in my pieces. I use my own surface designed fabrics in my work. The spontaneous nature of surface design often leads my creative process. I work intuitively: drawing ideas from the material at hand and expanding from there. I include natural objects in my work: stones, bark, fossils, metals, as well as ancient maps and writings; documenting their travel through time.”

Febraury 2009 - (TBA)