Gathie Falk CM OBC

2013 Audain Prize for the Visual Arts

Gathie Falk is a highly acclaimed Canadian painter, sculptor, installation and performance artist. She is known for taking everyday events and objects and transforming them into incredibly relevant works of art. The subject of her art ranges from apples, oranges and shoes, to flowers, hedges and clouds – often using repetition to amplify the significance of their form.

Gathie Falk was born in 1928 to Russian immigrant parents in Alexander, Manitoba. Following the death of her father, Cornelius, her mother, Agatha, went to work to support her family. They eventually moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, where Gathie Falk developed a passion for music, taking voice and music-theory lessons. At 16, Gathie Falk stopped attending school and music lessons, completing her diploma via correspondence so she could work and support the family’s finances. In 1947, Gathie Falk and her mother moved to Vancouver. She resumed music lessons and in the 1950s, began attending teaching school. Gathie Falk taught elementary school from 1953 until 1965, when she decided to pursue the arts full-time.

While she was a teacher, Gathie Falk took summer courses at the University of British Columbia. She studied painting and drawing with renown Canadian artist J.A.S Macdonald and was a pupil of Lawren Harris of the Group of Seven. In 1965, she had her first solo exhibition at The Canvas Shack, Vancouver.

In the late 1960’s, Gathie Falk switched from painting to ceramic sculptures, studying the medium with contemporary artist Glen Lewis. This led to critically acclaimed installations, all carrying her hallmark style of repetition and architectural form. She would shift between painting and sculpture making in the following decades.

Gathie Falk received the Gershon Iskowitz Prize in 1990, the Order of Canada in 1997, the Order of British Columbia in 2002, the Governor General Ward in the Visual Arts in 2003, and the Audain Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts in 2013. Gathie Falk’s art has been exhibited across the country and is held in the collections of the; Audain Art Museum, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Art Gallery of Ontario, the Glenbow Art Gallery, McMichael Canadian Collection, Musee d’Art Contemporain, Winnipeg Art Gallery and Vancouver Art Gallery.