ARTIST STATEMENT
Marble is my chosen medium for exploring the newness of something that has existed in one form or another since the beginning of time. The nature of this material resonates with the void, and offers a glimpse into the creation of something true. The origins of the material are the essence of my work and at the heart of my process. Somewhere, within the limits and possibilities of a stone, dwells a language beyond time and space. This is where I search for the shape of my ideas.
BIOGRAPHY
Kent Laforme, a graduate of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Canada, studied under renowned Canadian sculptor and artist John Greer. Laforme earned his BFA in 1994 and continued his studies at the Studio Leonardi in Pietrasanta, Italy, where he worked as a sculptural assistant for Greer and other well-known artists such as Cynthia Sah and Akiko Sato.
Constantin Brancusi and Japanese American sculptor Isamu Noguchi have both influenced Laforme's work. Laforme's Japanese Canadian heritage is a thematic thread that runs through much of his work, echoing Noguchi's appreciation and natural affinity for east-west perspectives and how that cross-cultural sensibility manifests in art.
Despite a body of work that includes paper and ink drawings, watercolour and oil paintings, and bronze, Laforme is best known for his unique and bold marble sculptures, which have been exhibited in New York, Hong Kong, Italy, and across Canada.
For the past twenty years, Laforme has maintained his studio practice at the edge of the forest near PKOLS on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Laforme acknowledges the language of the land, and respectfully works on the unceded traditional territories of the lək̓ʷəŋən peoples, and the Songhees, Esquimalt and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.
EDUCATION | GRANTS | SCHOLARHIPS
1998 Hong Kong Arts and Development Council, Artist Exhibition Grant
1993 – 1996 Studio Leonardi, Pietrasanta, Italy
1993 – 1994 Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Independent Off-Campus Study Program, Pietrasanta, Italy
1992 – 1993 Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Centennial Scholarship & William Peters Scholarship
1990 – 1994 Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Bachelor of Fine Arts, Halifax, NS
1987 – 1990 John Abbott College, D.E.C Fine Arts, Montreal, QC Ipsum
COMMISSIONED WORK
2020 Soul of a Wolf Stqéyə, Cattle Point, Victoria, BC
2014 Pillar of Ability, BC Centre for Ability, Vancouver, BC
2011 Furito, Colliers International, Victoria, BC
2006 Stone’s Throw, Roads End Contracting, Sydney, BC
2006 Mountains Within Mountains, Oswego Hotel, Victoria, BC
2005 Oran’s Ear, Community Civic Centre, Port Hawkesbury, NS
2004 Canada Rugby Sevens Trophy, Custom House Global ForeignExchange, Victoria, BC
2004 Macron Shell, Cinque Terre, English Bay, Vancouver, BC
2003 Indoor marble sculptures, Interlude Spa, Halifax, NS
1996 Indoor black granite sculpture, Korean Business Air Services (KBAS), Seoul, South Korea
PROFESSIONAL SCULPTURE ASSISTANT
1996 John Greer, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Canada, Pietrasanta, Italy
1995 Cynthia Sah, Museum of Taiwan, Taiwan, Pietrasanta, Italy
1993 Akiko Sato, Museum Bellerive, Switzerland, Zürich, Switzerland
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2020 Penticton Public Sculpture Exhibit, Penticton, BC
2020 Castlegar Sculpture Walk, Castlegar, BC
2015 Sculpture Splash, Victoria, BC
2014 Sculpture Splash, Victoria, BC
2014 Temporal Landmarks, Gage Gallery, Victoria, BC
2010 Objectified, Pelham Art Center, NYC, NY
2009 Altissimo, Elliott Louis Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2005 Atlantic Stone Sculpture Symposium, Inverness Arts Center, NS
1999 Frames of Hong Kong, Fringe Gallery, Hong Kong
1998 After Truce, Fringe Gallery, Hong Kong
1998 One Concept, Two Artists, Artist Commune Gallery, Hong Kong
1998 Between the Like and Unlike, Artist Commune, Hong Kong
1997 The Yellow Pages Great Wall, Open-Air Sculpture, Hong Kong
1997 The Art of Politics, Le Mistral Gallery, Hong Kong
1995 Foreign Artists in Italy, La Badia Monastery, Camaiore, Italy
1994 Echoes and Horizons, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, NS
1994 Mare e Marmo, Open-Air Sculpture Exhibition, Forte dei Marmi, Italy
1994 NSCAD Grad Exhibition, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design,Halifax, NS
1994 Mosaic, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, NS
1992 Peep Show, OO Gallery, Halifax, NS
