In Canadian art, Eric Metcalfe is the epitome of avant-garde. His art practice has crossed and merged painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, printmaking, performance, video and film. His work is tied closely with conceptual art and the Fluxus movement, an interdisciplinary and experimental art approach that focused on blending different mediums and removing the boundaries between art and everyday life. Metcalfe’s projects tend to be thematic, referencing popular culture such as film noir and westerns, and more classical subjects like Greek pottery and functional architectural details. Jazz and improvised music have always inspired him.
Metcalfe was born in Vancouver in 1940 and grew up in Victoria. He co-founded Western Front, a pioneering, artist-run centre in Vancouver in 1973. That same year, he and partner and fellow artist Kate Craig painted the exterior of the Vancouver Art Gallery in the signature leopard spots of their artistic personas Dr. Brute and Lady Brute, part of the Pacific Vibrations exhibitions. Metcalfe has a BFA in Visual Arts from the University of Victoria. He has taught at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, the University of British Columbia and through the Vancouver School Board. He has received numerous awards, including the Victor Martyn Lunch-Staunton award in 2000, the Audain ward in 2006 and the Governor General’s Award in 2008. His work has been exhibited and collected at numerous local, national and international institutions, including the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, the University of Victoria Legacy Art Gallery, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the National Gallery of Canada and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
“In the 50s and 60s there was a lot of dialogue between the painters and the poets and the musicians. They would go to the clubs and the painters would hang out, drink in these places and there’d be discussions around the music… they would go and see poetry and they’d hear jazz.” Quote from CBC News article “’You can never go back, that was a golden era’: Eric Metcalfe Exhibitions Blends Art with Jazz”, published Oct 21, 2017. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/you-can-never-go-back-that-was-a-golden-era-eric-metcalfe-exhibition-blends-art-with-jazz-1.4365975
Shall we do a deep dive?
Artist’s Website: https://www.ericmetcalfe.ca/
Western Front: https://westernfront.ca/ + link to “Spots Before Your Eyes”, Installation, Vancouver Art Gallery, Pacific Vibrations Exhibitions: https://westernfront.ca/archives/get/ca_occurrences/116
Definition of Fluxus: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/f/fluxus
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