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Gallery Locator Art Cyclopedia

Editor: Jock
Edited: May 7, 2010

Famous Canadian Artists, Cinematographers, Photographers & Sculptors.

Here are a few of the many Canadians artists, who either were born in Canada or became Canadian citizens, and who gained national and international fame for their objet d'arts. The links here are to their biographies.

Canadian Architects

• Frank Owen Gehry
  Born February 28, 1929, in Toronto. Received the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1989. He’s one of the world’s most distinguished and widely acknowledged architects.

Canadian Painters

Abstract, Impressionistic and Surrealistic Painters

• Paul-Émile Borduas
  Born 1905 in St.-Hilaire, Quebec and died 1960. Today, Borduas is recognized in Canada as the foremost abstract painter of the post-war era. His splashy, surrealist style was radical for the times. In 1953, Borduas left Canada for the United States, and in 1955, he went to Paris.
• Jack Bush
  Born 1909 in Toronto, raised in Montreal, and then, in his late teens, returned to Toronto. Initially, his paintings were representational, but by the 1940s his work was becoming increasingly abstract and eventually turned to color abstraction.
• Frank Carmichael
  Born 1890 in Orillia, died 1945, and was the youngest member of the original Group of Seven.
• Emily Carr
  Born on Dec. 13, 1871 in Victoria, B.C. Studied art at the California School of Design, in San Francisco at others in England and France. Took inspiration for painting from the wilds of British Columbia. Her most famous works, include Big Raven, Tree Trunk, and Scorned as Timber, Beloved of the Sky.
• Lawren Harris
  Born 1885 in Brantford, Ontario and died in 1970. Was an heir to the Massey-Harris fortunes, which supplied him with an independent income. The North Shore of Lake Superior served as the focus of his abstract paintings.
• A.Y. Jackson
  Born 1882 in Montreal and died 1974. He was an outward looking artist, whose main concern was to record the landscape before him and reveal Canada to Canadians.
• Arthur Lismer
  Born 1885 in England and died in 1969. In 1911 in Canada. He mainly painted Canadian landscapes.
• James MacDonald
  Emigrated in 1887 from England, to reside in Hamilton, Ontario and later moved to Toronto. His painting reflect the essential mood and feeling of a landscape through bright impressionist color and stylized forms. The Tangled Garden is considered one of his best.
• Norval Morrisseau
  Born in 1931, at Sandy Point Reserve, Ontario and died 2007. Was first to paint the ancient myths and legends of the eastern woodlands. He spent his youth in remote isolation in northern Ontario, near Thunderbay, where his artistic style developed without the usual influences of other artist's imagery. As the soul originator of his Woodland style he WAS an inspiration to three generations of artists. once called “the Picasso of the north.”
• Toni Onley
  Born in Douglas, Isle of Man, England. Came to Canada in 1948. Known mainly for his landscape paintings of the BC coast and interior.
• Jean Paul Riopelle
  Born in Montreal in 1923. Died March 12, 2002. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Montreal from 1943-44 and had his first solo exhibition in 1945. Critics say Riopelle was the first Canadian artist to be highly regarded in Europe’s tightly woven art world. He helped introduce abstract impressionism in Paris in the 1950s.
• Thomas John (Tom) Thomson
  Born near Claremont, Ontario Aug. 5, 1887 and grew up in Leith, near Owen Sound and died at Canoe Lake, Ontario July 8, 1917. One of the first painters to give acute visual form to the Canadian landscape as seen in Algonquin Park, Ontario. Best known works are: Jack Pine and The West Wind.
• Eric Dennis Waugh
  Born in Montreal, QC in 1963. Raised in Winnipeg, MN, and Burlington, ON. One of the world’s most prolific contemporary artists, created the world´s largest painting by one artist-providing a tapestry of hope for children with life-threatening illnesses.

Realistic Painters

• Robert Bateman
  Born on May 24, 1930 in Toronto, Ontario. Taught high-school geography and art for about 20 years in Toronto and Burlington (Lord Elgin High School), Ontario. He paints in a realistic style, with wildlife as his subject focus. He’s one of the world’s best known and most influential wildlife artists.    
• Ken Danby
  Born March 6, 1940, in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. and died 2007. Best known for his 1972 painting At the Crease, showing a masked hockey player.
• AlexColville
  Born on August 24, 1920 in Toronto, Ontario and moved with his family to Nova Scotia in 1929. Studied art at Mount Allison University, N.B. and on graduating in 1942 joined the Canadian Army and served in Europe as a member of the War Art program. He paints people and places he knew. Although realistic style, his paintings have a timeless and monumental quality.
• Paul Kane
  Irish-born (1810-1871) he’s recognized as a founding father of Canadian art. Also, he was the first Canadian painter to be credited with a best-selling book (1859), Wanderings of an Artist Among the Indians of North America.
• Christopher Pratt
  Born in St. John’s, Newfoundland on December 9, 1935. Has become one of Canada’s most prominent painters and print-makers and has gained a national reputation. He also expresses himself through poetry and prose.
• Frederick Arthur Verner
  Born on February 26, 1836 in Hammondsville (Sheridan), Ontario and died May 6, 1928, Ontario. The first Canadian member of the Royal British Colonial Society of Artists and a founding member of the Ontario Society of Artists. Won numerous medals.

Canadian Photographers

• Yousuf Karsh
  Born in Turkey on Dec. 23, 1908 and died in Boston, July 13, 2002. Came to Canada in 1924. Launched a studio in Ottawa in 1932. Became world famous for his portraits of famous people. His best known portrait is that of Sir Winston Churchill.
• Michael Snow
  Born in Jan. 1929 in Toronto, Ontario. Recognized as an artist, director, editor, cinematographer, performer (piano), sculptor and photographer.

Canadian Sculptors

• Zacharias Kunuk
  Born at Kapuivik in the Iglooik area of the Northwest Territories in 1957. He is a sculptor-turned-moviemaker, the producer/director of The Fast Runner (Atanarjuat).
• Robert Tait McKenzie
  Born in 1867, at Almonte, Ontario. Before World War I, he was recognized as the preeminent sculptor of athletic youth. After the war, his war memorials brought forth his most magnificent contributions to mankind. Among McKenzie's best works were The Boy Scout, Violent Effort, Breathlessness, and Fatigue and Exhaustion.
• Bill Reid
  Born in 1928 and died on March 13 1988. Famous and influential Northwest Coast artist. A man of many skills and broad vision, his work, especially his monumental bronzes, cut a unique and celebrated path into the international world of public art. Most renowned work is the The Spirit of Haida Gwaii.