Dave Gordon

Painting: acrylic, watercolour, mixed media. I'm in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, Art Gallery of Ontario, Museum London and Agnes Etherington Art Gallery, Kingston

I grew up in London, ON and studied at U.W.O, now Western University. London in the '60s was getting national attention as a happening art scene. Artists Greg Curnoe and Jack Chambers were key figures. Still, other younger artists made it a vibrant place to be and make art. Murray Favro, Ron Martin, Royden and David Rabinovitch, Robert Fones, Don Bonham, Jamelie Hassan, Kerry Ferris, Ron and Tom Benner, Walt Redinger and Ed Zelenak are some of the people who went on to successful art careers.

I was hired to teach in the innovative Beal Tech Art Department run by Herb Arris who also took on Don Bonham, from Oklahoma, and Paterson Ewen, a senior artist from Montreal who had moved to London. Studio spaces were cheap and available, and co-op and artist-run galleries such as 20/20 Gallery, and the Forest City Gallery showed local and national artists. I had my first one-man show in the 20/20 Gallery in 1970, and was a founding member of the Forest City Gallery in 1973.

In 1976 I moved to Kingston, ON to teach in the Fine Art Department at St. Lawrence College. I was a founding member of the K.A.A.I., now Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre, in Kingston.

I continued to exhibit in the artist-run system. In 2015 I had a retrospective exhibition at Modern Fuel that travelled to Niagara Artists' Centre in St. Catharines and Forest City Gallery in London. My recent show at the Window Gallery in Kingston titled "Specimen Days" contrasted Walt Whitman's love of nature with our current existential anxiety about climate change.