 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Edmonton Contemporary Artists' Society (ECAS) is an international artists' exhibition collective founded in 1993, based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Since the 1920s, artists in English Canada had been heavily influenced by the landscape painting of the Group of Seven, the Canadian Group of Painters and the Eastern Group of Painters. In Quebec, John Goodwin Lyman founded The Contemporary Arts Society in 1939, promoting post-impressionist and fauvist art. [1] Paul-Émile Borduas and Jean-Paul Riopelle spearheaded the modernist collective known as Les Automatistes, which began having exhibitions as early as 1941. However, their artistic influence was not quickly felt in English Canada, or indeed much beyond Montreal. [2] The Painters Eleven (1953 - 1960) was founded in Toronto to promote their members' abstract works. Regina Five is the name given to five abstract painters, Kenneth Lochhead, Arthur McKay, Douglas Morton, Ted Godwin, and Ronald Bloore, who displayed their works in the 1961 National Gallery of Canada's exhibition "Five Painters from Regina". Though not an organized group per se, the name stuck with the 'members' and the artists would continue to show together. [1]
The Edmonton Contemporary Artists' Society was formed in 1993 by a group of abstract artists working in Edmonton, Alberta. Founding artists include sculptor Peter Hide and painters, Terrence Keller, [3] Robert Scott, Mitchel Smith and Graham Peacock. [1] [4] The group formed in order that contemporary art in Edmonton would be seen annually in light of a decline in possibility for exposure by the City and Provincial galleries. The inaugural ECAS exhibition was held at the City Centre Building in Edmonton. [5] ECAS formerly published a newsletter which featured "an interview with an artist, critic or collector" in each issue, including such notable figures such as Clement Greenberg. [6] The society's 15th annual show, in 2007, was hailed as one of their most diverse and successful exhibitions. [7]
Membership in ECAS is dynamic: some artists have left, and new artists have joined. ECAS includes artists from within Edmonton, as well as locations beyond in Canada, the US, England, and Germany. [1] [3] Some of the artists who have exhibited with ECAS in its history include: César Alvarez, Walter Darby Bannard, Douglas Bentham, Russell Bingham, Hendrik Bres, Anthony Caro, Nola Cassady, Brenda Christiansen, Robert Christie, Ann Clarke, Scott Cumberland, James Davies, Dick Der, Michèle Drouin, Bruce Dunbar, Edward Epp, Gerald Faulder, Terry Fenton, John Griefen, Peter Hide, Bernard Hippel, Terrence Keller, Bianca Khan, John King, John Link, Sheila Luck, Kara Nina Maehler, Ruby J. Mah, Linda Maines, Ryan McCourt, Amanda McRoberts, Lelde Muehlenbachs, Seka Owen, Violet Owen, Dennis J. Panylyk, Graham Peacock, Hilary Prince, Robert A. Scott, Shawn Serfas, Katherine Sicotte, Sasha Silverstein, Mitchel Smith, Libby Weir, Robert Willms. [3] [7] [8] [9]
Peter Nicholas Hide is an English born abstract sculptor. A one-time pupil of Sir Anthony Caro, Hide is best known for upright, large-scale welded sculptures made of heavy, rusted industrial scrap steel.
Chris Cran is a Canadian visual artist, based in Calgary, Alberta.
Painters Eleven was a group of abstract artists active in Canada between 1953 and 1960. They are associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement.
John Hamilton Bush was a Canadian abstract painter. A member of Painters Eleven, his paintings are associated with the Color Field movement and Post-painterly Abstraction. Inspired by Henri Matisse and American abstract expressionist painters like Helen Frankenthaler and Morris Louis, Bush encapsulated joyful yet emotional feelings in his vibrant paintings, comparing them to jazz music. Clement Greenberg described him as a "supreme colorist", along with Kenneth Noland in 1984.
James Williamson Galloway Macdonald, commonly known in his professional life as Jock Macdonald, was a member of Painters Eleven, whose goal was to promote abstract art in Canada. Macdonald was a trailblazer in Canadian art from the 1930s to 1960. He was the first painter to exhibit abstract art in Vancouver, and throughout his life he championed Canadian avant-garde artists at home and abroad. His career path reflected the times: despite his commitment to his artistic practice, he earned his living as a teacher, becoming a mentor to several generations of artists.
Ray Mead (1921–1998) was a Canadian abstract expressionist painter and a member of the artists group known as Painters Eleven. In his work, he often used a high horizon line as a structural element.
Canadian art refers to the visual as well as plastic arts originating from the geographical area of contemporary Canada. Art in Canada is marked by thousands of years of habitation by Indigenous peoples followed by waves of immigration which included artists of European origins and subsequently by artists with heritage from countries all around the world. The nature of Canadian art reflects these diverse origins, as artists have taken their traditions and adapted these influences to reflect the reality of their lives in Canada.
Alex Simeon Janvier, LL.D is a First Nation artist in Canada. As a member of the commonly referred to "Indian Group of Seven", Janvier is a pioneer of contemporary Canadian Aboriginal art in Canada.
Carol Lorraine Sutton is a multidisciplinary artist born in Norfolk, Virginia, USA and now living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She is a painter whose works on canvas and paper have been shown in 32 solo exhibits as well as being included in 94 group shows. Her work, which ranges from complete abstraction to the use of organic and architectural images, relates to the formalist ideas of Clement Greenberg and is noted for the use of color. Some of Sutton paintings have been related to ontology.
Joseph Drapell is a Czech-Canadian abstract painter.
Robert Byron Willms is a Canadian sculptor and teacher, best known for creating assembled, abstract steel sculptures.
Mina Forsyth was a Canadian artist. She is known for her expressionist and abstract landscapes, figural works and still life paintings.
Douglas Hector Haynes was a Canadian abstract artist and teacher.
Ken Macklin is a Canadian artist best known for his large abstract sculptures made from industrial materials.
Terry Fenton is a Canadian artist, author, critic, and curator known for his landscape paintings, his support of modernist art, and his writing on the work of artists such as Jack Bush, Anthony Caro, Peter Hide, Dorothy Knowles, Ken Macklin, Kenneth Noland, Jules Olitski, and William Perehudoff. Fenton is the former director of the Edmonton Art Gallery, the A.C. Leighton Foundation, Calgary and the Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon. Since 2013, Fenton has resided in Victoria, British Columbia.
The North Edmonton Sculpture Workshop (NESW) is an artist collective, or artist-run initiative, centred on a co-operative shared studio in Edmonton, Alberta, focused on "the creation and promotion of ambitious contemporary sculpture made using industrial processes and materials". The NESW name makes a symbolic reference to the cardinal directions in allusion to the idea of boundless exploration.
Kathy Slade (1966) is a Canadian artist, author, curator, editor, and publisher born in Montreal, Quebec, and based in Vancouver, British Columbia. She is currently a Term Lecturer at Simon Fraser University's School for the Contemporary Arts.
Ronald Benjamin Moppett is a Canadian painter. He is known primarily for abstract paintings and for works in which he combines paint and collage, along with non-traditional materials. Moppett is based in Calgary, Alberta.
Graham Peacock is an English-born abstract Canadian painter. He was a member of the art group founded by Dr. Kenworth Moffett (1934-2016) known as the New New Painters.
Ann Clarke is a Canadian artist, who creates vibrant gestural abstract paintings and drawings which reveal her formal interests as well as a fascination with twenty-first century technologies. She is also an educator.
