Art Metropole

08 - 30 Apr. 2015

Garry Neill Kennedy Drawings

Artist

Garry Neill Kennedy

Opening

08 Apr. 2015

A window exhibition consisting of hundreds of Garry Neill Kennedy’s notes, plans, and doodles produced during one decade at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. The same works will be printed in a set of three books, DRAWINGS 1, 2, and 3, published by Emily Carr University Press and Publication Studio Vancouver in partnership with Art Metropole.

From the artist:

“These sets of three artists’ books are entitled, 1, 2 and 3. Each book is about 260 pages, printed on both sides. The original manuscript for the books was a 10 inch stack of drawings that I made on 8.5 × 11 inch white, photocopy paper. There are a few on lined paper. I drew them for about a ten-year period around the late 70s to late 80s.

The drawings in these books are about my work—my work as an artist and my work as head of an art college. They include a large number of plans for future installations and there are also many pages of NSCAD related stuff, such as draft letters to faculty, draft agenda’s for meetings, etc. But everything is all mixed-up as one often finds plans for future works, college business and various kinds of doodles all on the same page. There are large numbers of people’s names scattered throughout the pages—most of them about college or art related people. There are very few pages of drawings devoted entirely to plans for future exhibitions, just as there are very few pages with only college related business drawn on them. Most of the pages, as I mentioned, are all mixed-up with doodles dominating.

When I look over the drawings I can see many references to exhibitions that occurred and many pages about works that never took place—some are of half-baked ideas where I try on various wall configurations for different gallery spaces. Often I would start a drawing by first outlining the particular space of the intended venue then I would get bored and follow-up with a page of drawings of a subconscious nature (doodles).

Acknowledgements
I am indebted to Kathy Slade of READ Books and ECU Press at Emily Carr University of Art and Design, for being totally behind the project to see these books in print—from its inception. Kathy’s longtime familiarity with artists’ books came to the fore when she appointed Stephan Garneau as the key person responsible for overseeing the preproduction and design of the books. Thanks also to Keith Higgins of Publication Studio Vancouver and Art Metropole for their support of the project.”

Garry Neill Kennedy is a senior Canadian artist. In addition to an active career as an artist, Kennedy taught studio art at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD University) for over forty years where he also served as president for 23 years (1967 – 1990). He was visiting professor at California Institute of the Arts (Cal Arts) and Ēcole des Beaux Arts, Paris (ENSB-A). His most recent solo museum exhibitions were held at The National Gallery of Canada, The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, The Owens Art Gallery and Portikus (#86, Frankfurt am Main). In 2003 he was a recipient of the Order of Canada and in 2004, the Governor General’s Award in the Visual and Media Arts. In 2011 he received an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from NSCAD University.

Kennedy recently had solo shows in Toronto at Diaz Contemporary, 2012 and in Vancouver, BC at Or Gallery in 2013 and The Apartment in 2014. He has also recently completed two books — one for MIT Press, The Last Art College: Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, 1968 -1978 and a second, a catalogue raisonne of his printed matter published by the Library and Archives of the National Gallery of Canada, both in 2012. Kennedy team teaches part-time with his wife, Cathy Busby at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC where they make their home.

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3: Garry Neill Kennedy, Drawings 1. Garry Neill Kennedy.

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