Eric Metcalfe
Mandarin Ducks, 2008 [SOLD]
Gouache, 15" x 11"
Market Value $1000
Starting Bid $400
Eric Metcalfe wins GG Arts Award
By KEVIN GRIFFIN
Vancouver Sun
The Vancouver artist once widely known as Dr. Brute is one of eight winners of the 2008 Governor General's Awards in Visual Arts.
The Canada Council for the Arts announced Tuesday that Eric Metcalfe, an avant-garde artist and a founder of the artist-run Western Front, will be presented with a Governor General's Award at a ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on Friday.
Award recipients receive a $25,000 prize along with original artworks created by furniture maker and designer Peter Fleming.
Other visual arts award winners are Kenojuak Ashevak, Serge Giguère, Michel Goulet, Alex Janvier, and Tanya Mars. Chantal Gilbert won the Saidye Bronfman Award for excellence in the fine crafts and Shirley Thomson won the outstanding contribution award for her work as a cultural administrator, gallery director and arts advocate.
Metcalfe, contacted in his hotel room at the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa, said he was completely surprised when he got the call telling him he'd been selected. The hardest part was keeping it secret for six months.
"I was really delighted when I got the call from the Canada Council saying 'Eric you got the CC award,'" said Metcalfe, 67. "It's quite an honour."
Metcalfe has had a run of good luck with awards recently. In 2006, Metcalfe won the Audain Prize, a lifetime achievement award that also included a cheque for $25,000.
"I haven't done too badly in the last couple of years with these cheques."
Known by his alter ego Dr. Brute in the 1970s, Metcalfe created numerous leopard-spotted works and objects, including tubes of toothpaste and musical instruments such as saxophones. A non-commercial artist, he's worked in various media including painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, printmaking, performance, video and film. He's taught at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design and at the University of B.C. as a visiting artist. He has had work shown at the National Gallery, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Metcalfe thanked the Canada Council for supporting experimental artists like him over the years.
"My generation of artists benefited from the Canada Council," he said.
"We were doing all this experimental work that would never have gotten support from anywhere else."
Metcalfe said the national support from the council allowed him and other local artists to create alternate personas such as Dr. Brute, Mr. Peanut, Miss General Idea and Flakey Rosehips and an experimental art centre such as the Western Front.
"We're very lucky with the Canada Council."
Metcalfe's most recent work is Laura, a collaborative work with several other artists that explores his interest in film noir, the genre that had its heyday from the mid-'40s to the mid-'50s. It was shown in Vancouver at Artspeak in 2004.
An exhibition of the works of all the 2008 Governor General's visual arts winners runs from Friday, March 28 to Sunday, June 15 at the National Gallery.
The Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts, funded and administered by the Canada Council for the Arts, were created in June, 1999 and presented for the first time in March, 2000. The awards recognize distinguished career achievement in the visual and media arts by Canadian artists.
Mandarin Ducks, 2008 [SOLD]
Gouache, 15" x 11"
Market Value $1000
Starting Bid $400
Eric Metcalfe wins GG Arts Award
By KEVIN GRIFFIN
Vancouver Sun
The Vancouver artist once widely known as Dr. Brute is one of eight winners of the 2008 Governor General's Awards in Visual Arts.
The Canada Council for the Arts announced Tuesday that Eric Metcalfe, an avant-garde artist and a founder of the artist-run Western Front, will be presented with a Governor General's Award at a ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on Friday.
Award recipients receive a $25,000 prize along with original artworks created by furniture maker and designer Peter Fleming.
Other visual arts award winners are Kenojuak Ashevak, Serge Giguère, Michel Goulet, Alex Janvier, and Tanya Mars. Chantal Gilbert won the Saidye Bronfman Award for excellence in the fine crafts and Shirley Thomson won the outstanding contribution award for her work as a cultural administrator, gallery director and arts advocate.
Metcalfe, contacted in his hotel room at the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa, said he was completely surprised when he got the call telling him he'd been selected. The hardest part was keeping it secret for six months.
"I was really delighted when I got the call from the Canada Council saying 'Eric you got the CC award,'" said Metcalfe, 67. "It's quite an honour."
Metcalfe has had a run of good luck with awards recently. In 2006, Metcalfe won the Audain Prize, a lifetime achievement award that also included a cheque for $25,000.
"I haven't done too badly in the last couple of years with these cheques."
Known by his alter ego Dr. Brute in the 1970s, Metcalfe created numerous leopard-spotted works and objects, including tubes of toothpaste and musical instruments such as saxophones. A non-commercial artist, he's worked in various media including painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, printmaking, performance, video and film. He's taught at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design and at the University of B.C. as a visiting artist. He has had work shown at the National Gallery, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Metcalfe thanked the Canada Council for supporting experimental artists like him over the years.
"My generation of artists benefited from the Canada Council," he said.
"We were doing all this experimental work that would never have gotten support from anywhere else."
Metcalfe said the national support from the council allowed him and other local artists to create alternate personas such as Dr. Brute, Mr. Peanut, Miss General Idea and Flakey Rosehips and an experimental art centre such as the Western Front.
"We're very lucky with the Canada Council."
Metcalfe's most recent work is Laura, a collaborative work with several other artists that explores his interest in film noir, the genre that had its heyday from the mid-'40s to the mid-'50s. It was shown in Vancouver at Artspeak in 2004.
An exhibition of the works of all the 2008 Governor General's visual arts winners runs from Friday, March 28 to Sunday, June 15 at the National Gallery.
The Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts, funded and administered by the Canada Council for the Arts, were created in June, 1999 and presented for the first time in March, 2000. The awards recognize distinguished career achievement in the visual and media arts by Canadian artists.
