Garry Neill Kennedy, (6 November 1935 – 8 August 2021) was a Canadian conceptual artist and educator from Halifax, Nova Scotia. In the mid-1970s, he created works that investigated the processes and materials of painting. In the first decade of the 2000s, he expanded his work to investigate art and its social, institutional, and political framework.

Life

Kennedy was born in

St. Catharines St. Catharines is the largest city in Canada's Niagara Region and the sixth largest urban area in the province of Ontario. As of 2016, it has an area of , 136,803 residents, and a metropolitan population of 406,074. It lies in Southern Ontario ...

, Ontario. He studied at the Ontario College of Art (1960) and then earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University at Buffalo. He completed his Master of Fine Arts at the University of Ohio in 1965. Kennedy went on to teach in, and head, the fine art department of Northland College in

Ashland, Wisconsin Ashland is a city in Ashland and Bayfield counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It is the county seat of Ashland County. The city is a port on Lake Superior, near the head of Chequamegon Bay. The population was 7,908 at the 2020 census, al ...

. In 1967, at the age of 32, he was appointed president of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, the youngest ever to serve in that position. He was president of the college for 23 years, till 2000. Kennedy died in Vancouver, BC on August 8, 2021, after years of battling dementia.

Work

Kennedy has been called a "near-legendary figure in the Canadian conceptual art scene" for his contributions to this area in both his art practice and as head of NSCAD. His main artistic practice in the 2000s was based on the criticism of institutional power, ranging from office politics to corporate greed and government authority. His solo exhibitions include such venues as the Art Gallery of Ontario, the

Art Gallery of Nova Scotia The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (AGNS) is a public provincial art museum based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The art museum's primary building complex is located in downtown Halifax and takes up approximately of space. The museum complex compr ...

, the National Gallery of Canada, the 49th Parallel Gallery (New York), the Tasmanian School of Art Gallery (Hobart, Australia), Galeri II (Reykjavik, Iceland), Portikus (Frankfurt) and numerous others. In 2000, a major show ''Garry Neill Kennedy: Work of Four Decades'', was organized and circulated by the

in partnership with the National Gallery of Canada. In 2017, the

MacKenzie Art Gallery The MacKenzie Art Gallery (MAG; french: Musee d’art MacKenzie) is an art museum located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. The museum occupies the multipurpose T. C. Douglas Building, situated at the edge of the Wascana Centre. The building hol ...

in Regina held ''Garry Neill Kennedy: Ya ummi Ya ummi'' curated by Timothy Long. In 2018, his exhibition ''Remembering Names'' was held at the CSA Space, Vancouver. It was a project conceived in the early 1970s, and repeated several times in the following decades, in which he attempted to recall and record the names of people he has met since childhood. In 2020, ''Garry Neill Kennedy: The Big Five'', in which he reassigned the colour schemes of the corporate logos of the five biggest banks in Canada, was exhibited at the Victoria Arts Council Gallery in Victoria, B.C. (it had been previously shown at the Emerson Gallery in Berlin). He has been included in over twenty group exhibitions at such galleries and museums as The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Art Cologne; and the Art Gallery of Contemporary Art, Vancouver. Public collections which hold his work include the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the National Gallery of Canada, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Glenbow Museum, and the Owens Art Gallery, Sackville, NB.

Awards

Kennedy was awarded the

Portia White Prize The Portia White Prize is the largest prize of its type awarded by the Province of Nova Scotia and is named for Portia White, a Nova Scotian artist who rose through adversity to achieve international acclaim as a classical singer on the stages of Eu ...

by the Arts Council of Nova Scotia in 2000. In 2004, Kennedy received a

Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts The Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts are annual awards for achievements in visual and media arts in Canada. Up to eight awards are presented annually with the prize amount is $25,000 Created in 2000 by then Governor General Ad ...

. His jury citation called him "one of the most distinguished figures in Canadian art. Not only has he produced a body of conceptual painting that is recognized internationally, he was also instrumental in establishing an international reputation for the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, of which he was the innovative head for 23 years." In 2004, Kennedy was invested as a Member of the Order of Canada by Governor General Adrienne Clarkson for his contributions as an administrator, educator and artist, enriching Canada's cultural legacy. In 2011, he received a Doctor of Fine Arts (honoris causa) degree from NASCAD. In 2012, he received the Nova Scotia Masterworks Award.

Publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kennedy, Garry 1935 births 2021 deaths NSCAD University faculty Canadian conceptual artists Canadian contemporary artists Members of the Order of Canada University at Buffalo alumni Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts winners Canadian art educators Artists from St. Catharines Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts