Roland Brener RCA (February 22, 1942 – March 22, 2006) was a South African-born Canadian artist.[1][2][3]

Roland Brener
BornFebruary 22, 1942
DiedMarch 22, 2006
EducationSt. Martin's School of Art
Known forSculptor
Movementabstract art, modernism, postmodernism
SpouseDama Hanks-Brener

Life edit

Brener was born Roland Albert Brener[4] on February 22, 1942, in Johannesburg.[5][6] He studied art at Saint Martin's School of Art under Anthony Caro.[7] He completed his academic training in 1965, and in 1967, Brener was one of the founders of the Stockwell Depot, a studio and exhibition space occupying part of a disused brewery in south London.[8][9] Brener taught at Saint Martin's,[6] at the University of California, Santa Barbara[10] and at the University of Iowa[11][10] before being appointed Associate Professor at the University of Victoria in 1974.[10] He retired from teaching in 1997 and continued to live and work in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada until his death in 2006.[12]

Work edit

Brener's early practice grew from the formalist innovations of his contemporaries at Saint Martin's. During the 1980s his work developed a more playful individuality as he began to incorporate consumer items, most often toys, and experiment with kinetic sculpture driven by electronic motors or computers. In his later work he began to use the computer as a design tool to produce fantastical distortions of everyday images and objects which were then fabricated in wood or synthetic materials.

Exhibitions edit

Brener represented Canada at the São Paulo Art Biennial in 1987 and the Venice Biennale in 1988.[13][14][15] In 2000, Brener exhibited Swinger at Deitch Projects in New York,[16] and in 2006 he was in Part Two, a duo exhibition with Mowry Baden at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.

Public works edit

His public sculpture Radioville, a re-working of his earlier sculptures Endsville and Capital Z,[17] was installed in 2005 on the site of an old CBC radio-antenna tower in central Toronto, Ontario.[18][19]

Collections edit

Brener's work is represented in most of the major public collections in Canada, including Toronto's Art Gallery of Ontario and the National Gallery of Canada.[12]

Awards and honours edit

References edit

  1. ^ "Roland Brener Biography, The Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art". Archived from the original on 8 May 2016. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  2. ^ "Nicholas Tuele, Roland Brener, The Canadian Encyclopedia, March 3, 2008". Archived from the original on 27 April 2016. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  3. ^ "Caroline Langill, "Shifting Polarities", Daniel Langlois Foundation, 2009". Archived from the original on 9 April 2016. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  4. ^ "Roland Albert Brener". US Department of State: Art in Embassies. United States Government. Archived from the original on 2 June 2016. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  5. ^ "Roland Brener In Memoriam". Times-Colonist. Archived from the original on 29 June 2016. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  6. ^ a b Roger Matuz (1997). Contemporary Canadian artists. Gale Canada. ISBN 978-1-896413-46-4.
  7. ^ David Moos (2005). The Shape of Colour: Excursions in Colour Field Art, 1950-2005. Art Gallery of Ontario. ISBN 978-1-894243-45-2. Archived from the original on 15 February 2017. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
  8. ^ Tate Gallery (1970). The Tate Gallery. Tate Gallery Publications Department.
  9. ^ Mary Jane Jacob; Terry Ann R. Neff; Graham William John Beal (January 1987). A quiet revolution, British sculpture since 1965. Thames and Hudson.
  10. ^ a b c Robert Youds; Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (2006). Mowry Baden and Roland Brener: thirty years in Victoria. Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.
  11. ^ Susan Landauer; William H. Gerdts; Patricia Trenton (2003). The not-so-still life: a century of California painting and sculpture. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-23937-1.
  12. ^ a b "Roland Brener 1942 - 2006". National Gallery of Canada. Archived from the original on 30 June 2016. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  13. ^ John Knechtel (1998). Open City. House of Anansi Press. ISBN 978-0-88784-621-2.
  14. ^ Contemporanea. Contemporanea, Limited. 1989.
  15. ^ R.R. Bowker Company. Database Publishing Group (1993). Who's Who in American Art: 1993-94. R.R. Bowker. ISBN 978-0-8352-3274-6.
  16. ^ "Roland Brener Swinger". Deitch Projects. Archived from the original on 3 August 2016. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  17. ^ "Capital Z". National Gallery of Canada. Archived from the original on 3 June 2016. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  18. ^ Paez, Beatrice. "This Public Art Honours the Site of Canada's First Radio Transmission". Torontoist. Archived from the original on 25 May 2016. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  19. ^ John Warkentin (2010). Creating Memory: A Guide to Outdoor Public Sculpture in Toronto. Becker Associates. pp. 335–. ISBN 978-0-919387-60-7.
  20. ^ "Members since 1880". Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Archived from the original on 26 May 2011. Retrieved 11 September 2013.

External links edit