Art Metropole

David William Buchan was born 11 February 1950 in Grimsby, Ontario, Canada. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Honours degree from York University, Toronto, Ontario, in 1972 and lived for a short period of time in Montreal, Quebec, before settling permanently in Toronto in 1975. Between 1975-85, he was primarily employed at Art Metropole in the capacity of Bookstore Manager. His association with Art Metropole and especially with its founding members, General Idea, would continue to be a vital source of personal and professional support throughout his life. During the mid 1970’s to mid 1980’s David’s artistic production was largely performance based and consisted of multi-media productions. A performance piece entitled “Fruit Cocktails” was performed at the artists’ video conference Fifth Network, 8 September 1978 and debuted Lamonte del Monte, an invented persona which David would assume in a variety of performances, artworks, and installations until 1988. In addition to performance art, David produced photo-text works and magazine pages which featured parodies of 1950’s and 1960’s advertising, and in keeping with his performance pieces, functioned as popular culture commentaries. In 1982 he was awarded a Canada Council Artist Studio in Paris, France. Beginning in 1984, David began to produce cibachrome transparencies, cibachrome prints and duro-transparencies often working on a large scale. These photographic works represent a continuation of David’s earlier work in terms of their interest in visual and popular culture. In producing these photo-based works David used contemporary advertising as well as historical paintings as source images. Throughout his artistic career David Buchan produced work which often contained autobiographic points of reference and employed not only himself, but also friends, as models in his photo-based works. His work has been included in numerous group exhibitions, in addition to solo exhibitions, in Canada, the United States and Europe; and is in the collections of The National Gallery of Canada, Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, Canada Council Art Bank, Winnipeg Art Gallery, as well as private collections. In conjunction with his artistic career David also worked as a graphic designer for twelve years producing a variety of publications and exhibition related material for numerous individuals and organizations. On 5 January 1994 David Buchan died in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Robert Flack (1957-1993), was born in Guelph (Ontario), and moved to Toronto to study at York University. He began employment at Art Metropole in 1980, where he also worked as a layout artist on many General Idea-related projects such as FILE Megazine. From the beginning, Flack’s work expressed an “otherworldliness” – a quality that focused sharply with his HIV sero-conversion in 1988. From that point forward, Flack’s vision rocketed almost exclusively into the internalized realms of psychic energy, the chakras and the “etheric body.”

Andrew Zealley is a Toronto-based artist whose work expands beyond audio and music methods to inform mixed disciplines and media. His practice has been situated at the shifting nexus of HIV/AIDS, queer identity, and the body since 1990. Zealley s audio installation, Nature: This Is A Recording, is in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Canada. He has recordings published by labels Art Metropole, Fine & Dandy, How To Explain Silence To A Dead Hare, Old Europa Cafe, Public Record/Ultra-red, Tourette Records, and Vague Terrain. Zealley holds an MFA in interdisciplinary studies from OCAD University. He is currently pursuing doctoral research through the Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University; Program of Study: Safe and Sound: Art, Queer Listening, and Biopolitics of HIV/AIDS.