“West Encounters East’s Light And Shadows” Previews At Lowe Art Museum

 Miami, FL, January 12, 2012 

Nearly 200 invited guests got a special preview of an important new art exhibition on February 9th at Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami

Lowe Director Brian Dursum and Stella M. Holmes, president of The Brickellian, jointly hosted a preview of West Encounters East’s Light and Shadows, which will premier at arteaméricas 2012 next month.

Among the honored guests were Hélio Vitor Ramos Filho, Ambassador and Consul General of Brazil in Miami; Francisco Jose Miguel Talento Cutrin, Ambassador of Argentina; Abigail MacBain, Cultural and Educational Affairs Coordinator at the Consulate General of Japan; and Luis Lauredo, who served from 2000-2001 as the US Ambassador to the Organization of American States and the US Government Coordinator for the Summit of the Americas.

The exhibit focuses on the fusion of Eastern and Western artistic traditions in the works of seven Brazilian artists of Asian heritage. At the Lowe event, The Japanese Beauty of Shadows, a presentation by writer Anna Kazumi Stahl, Ph.D., addressed the Japanese cultural aesthetic as it relates to light and dark. Denise Mattar, curator of the exhibit and former director of São Paulo Modern Art Museum and Rio de Janeiro Modern Art Museum, supplied an historical context by explaining Japanese immigration patterns to Brazil, and also talked specifically about the interplay of East and West in the works of the artists featured in the exhibit.

Following the lectures, guests enjoyed a reception with refreshments provided by Thierry Catering, while the music of Yoshiko Carlton on the koto, a Japanese stringed instrument, and Jorge Alfano on the Japanese shakuhachi flute preserved the evening’s theme and mood.

West Encounters East (WEE), a project founded by Ms. Holmes in 2010, rethinks the significance of cultural exchange, emigration, ethnicity and diversity by identifying and engaging emerging and established Latin American artists of Asian heritage.

For more information, call (305) 854-4959