Gathie FalkLife & Work

“Gathie Falk has an unapologetically personal vision. Whether it is consciously evoked or not, her work is infused with many of the strategies used in feminist art to challenge patriarchal assumptions about what deserves to be included in the realm of high art.”

– Michelle Jacques

Born to Mennonite parents from Russia in Alexander, Manitoba, Falk and her family moved across the prairies after the death of her father, taking up refuge in different Mennonite communities. Her memories of these humble beginnings—tending gardens, picking fruit, gathering eggs, her mother sewing and making clothes—became the themes she has explored in her work ever since. In Gathie Falk: Life & Work, Michelle Jacques details the captivating life of this singular artist. Encouraged by the ceramicist Glenn Lewis and painter Lawren P. Harris, Falk began to exhibit her art in 1960 and five years later left a stable teaching career to follow her dream. For five subsequent decades, Falk has created some of the most well-known art in Canada and abroad, using sculpture, performance, painting, and drawing. From pyramids of fruit to papier-mâché canoes, Falk’s work is boundless.

Copyright Information

Banner Image: Gathie Falk, Single Right Men’s Shoes: Blue Running Shoes, c.1973. Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery, Gift of J. Ron Longstaffe (83.41.a-i). © Gathie Falk.