Kaoru Mansour is a native of Japan working as a painter in Los Angeles. She moved to California in 1986 and studied at Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles from 1987 to 1989. Her childhood experiences with the lush, natural environment of her hometown serve as the inspiration for much of her work. Mansour borrows familiar imagery from this environment, such as birds, fruits, flowers, and other vegetation, and collages them onto canvases to create layered mixed media paintings. Mansour also draws inspiration from and incorporates additional media into her work, including gold leaf, thread, painted dots, paper cut-outs, and the texture of traditional Japanese raku ware pottery. Mansour has exhibited nationally and internationally, including solo exhibitions in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Japan, and Singapore. Her work has also been featured in group exhibitions in Korea, Italy, Thailand, and Germany. Mansour has been invited to give lectures in association with the USC Pacific Asia Museum, Collage Artists of America, San Diego Mesa Collage, and the California Institute of the Arts. Her work is included in private, corporate and hospitality collections worldwide.
