Paul Sloggett (born 1950) is an abstract painter known for his use of geometric shapes and patterns in creating paintings and for his many teaching and administrative appointments at

OCAD University Ontario College of Art & Design University, commonly known as OCAD University or OCAD, is a public art university located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The university's main campus is spread throughout several buildings and facilities within do ...

, Toronto.

Biography

Sloggett was born in

Campbellford Campbellford is an unincorporated place and former town in Northumberland County, Ontario, Canada, in the township municipality of Trent Hills. It lies approximately midway between Toronto and Ottawa. It is situated on both the Trent-Severn W ...

, Ontario and grew up in

Oshawa Oshawa ( , also ; 2021 population 175,383; CMA 415,311) is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the Lake Ontario shoreline. It lies in Southern Ontario, approximately east of Downtown Toronto. It is commonly viewed as the eastern anchor of the G ...

, where he attended McLaughlin Collegiate in 1969–1970. He was directed into his career by his art teacher at McLaughlin, Murray Hofstetter. His early work was influenced by shows at the

Robert McLaughlin Gallery The Robert McLaughlin Gallery is a public art gallery in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. It is the largest public art gallery in the Regional Municipality of Durham, of which Oshawa is a part. The gallery houses a significant collection of Canadian conte ...

in Oshawa and specifically by one work by

Richard Diebenkorn Richard Diebenkorn (April 22, 1922 – March 30, 1993) was an American painter and printmaker. His early work is associated with abstract expressionism and the Bay Area Figurative Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. In the late 1960s he bega ...

shown by the gallery. In 1987, the gallery curated the travelling exhibition, ''Paul Sloggett: Twelve Years''. Sloggett still has a connection to Oshawa. In 2016, he was invited to exhibit ''New Paintings'' in 2016 in the

University of Ontario Ontario Tech University (OTU), also known as Ontario Tech, is a public research university located in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. The university's main campus is located on approximately of land in northern Oshawa, while its secondary satellite cam ...

Regent Theatre in Oshawa at the reception for a screening of the video ''Water Colour''. He lives and has his studio in nearby

Newcastle, Ontario Newcastle is a community in the municipality of Clarington in Durham Region, Ontario, Canada. The community inherits the former name of the present-day municipality which it belongs to. Newcastle is located about 80 km east of Toronto, and ...

. Sloggett is a member of what has been described as the third generation of artists inspired in their painting style by

Painters Eleven Painters Eleven (also known as Painters 11 or P11) was a group of abstract artists active in Canada between 1953 and 1960. They are associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement. History Since the 1920s, artists in English Canada had been h ...

in Ontario as well as painters in New York, such as, for Sloggett,

Frank Stella Frank Philip Stella (born May 12, 1936) is an American painter, sculptor and printmaker, noted for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. Stella lives and works in New York City. Biography Frank Stella was born in M ...

and

Kenneth Noland Kenneth Noland (April 10, 1924 – January 5, 2010) was an American painter. He was one of the best-known American color field painters, although in the 1950s he was thought of as an abstract expressionist and in the early 1960s he was though ...

. He was a second-year student at the Ontario College of Art when Dennis Burton became head of the painting and drawing department in 1970. Burton hired for the department painters such as

Graham Coughtry Graham Coughtry (June 6, 1931January 13, 1999), was a Canadian modernist figurative painter. Biography Coughtry was born in Saint-Lambert, Quebec, on June 8, 1931. He learned to paint at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts School, then attended ...

and

Gordon Rayner Gordon Rayner (June 14, 1935 – September 26, 2010) was a Canadian abstract expressionist painter. His way of creating art was idiosyncratic and characterized by constant innovation and often by transformation of his medium. Later, he integrated ...

that were Sloggett`s teachers. Sloggett also knew and admired

Jack Bush John Hamilton Bush (March 20, 1909 – January 24, 1977) was a Canadian abstract painter. A member of Painters Eleven, his paintings are associated with the Color Field movement and Post-painterly Abstraction. Inspired by Henri Ma ...

. From the time he graduated, his art work has followed a consistent course: works which emphasized the picture-as-object with strongly asserted geometric shapes combined with spatial illusions in works on canvas, in collage on paper or in prints. He sometimes has been called a Neo-Constructivist, but a painterly one. Sloggett`s art was recognized for its innovations while still a student at the

Ontario College of Art Ontario College of Art & Design University, commonly known as OCAD University or OCAD, is a public art university located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The university's main campus is spread throughout several buildings and facilities within do ...

. Upon graduation, he was awarded an OCAD Teaching Assistantship Scholarship to work under the direction of

Royden Rabinowitch Royden Rabinowitch, (born March 6, 1943) is a Canadian post-minimalist sculptor who exhibits internationally. Some critics consider him one of the pioneers of modern sculpture. Rabinowitch was elected Visiting Associate 1983/84; Visiting Fellow 1 ...

, chair of Experimental Art (1974). His work on the painting scene was quickly noted as remarkable, even "astounding" for its paint quality by ''

Art International ''Art International'' known as ''Art International Magazine'', was an art journal based in Switzerland and issued 10 times per year. James A. Fitzsimmons was the magazine's chief editor and publisher. History and profile ''Art International'' ma ...

'' magazine. Geometric structure is his method towards making work. "I always felt as if I was building paintings as opposed to painting pictures”, he has said. The Art Gallery of Ontario included his work in ''Four Canadian painters'', (1976) and it was featured again in 1977 in ''14 Canadians: a Critic`s Choice'', an exhibition held at the

Hirshhorn Museum The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., the United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was des ...

in Washington, DC, curated by Andrew Hudson. In 1980, Sloggett changed the shape of his canvases to reflect his ongoing interest in sculptural qualities in his work. The faceted nature of the works which followed came from looking at diagrams of basic rock, mineral and crystal structures. Sloggett showed with

David Mirvish Gallery David Mirvish Gallery was a contemporary, commercial art gallery run by David Mirvish from 1963 to 1978, within the Markham Street art community on Mirvish Village in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Artists at the gallery are best known for Color Field ...

(closed in 1977), then with Klonarides Inc., and then with Moore Gallery in Toronto. The Art Gallery of Peterborough held a show of his more recent work in 2000. In 2017, he showed with Hatch Gallery, Bloomfield, Prince Edward County. In 2020, he is showing his work with that of

Daniel Solomon Daniel Solomon (born 1945) is an abstract painter who uses intense, vibrant colour in his work, combined with complex, pictorial space, inspired by artists such as Jack Bush and is a painter and professor in Drawing and Painting at OCAD Univers ...

at the 13th Street Gallery, St. Catharines. Besides numerous solo exhibitions, he has participated in group exhibitions, and created site-specific installations in New York City (1986) and in Salt Lake City, Utah (1988). In 2019, he gave a lecture at OCAD University, ''Paul Sloggett: A Life in Art'', a survey of the artist’s experiences as a member of the Toronto arts community and his life as a professor at OCAD University.

Public collections

Art Gallery of Alberta The Art Gallery of Alberta (AGA) is an art museum in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The museum occupies a building at Churchill Square in downtown Edmonton. The museum building was originally designed by Donald G. Bittorf, and B. James Wensley, alth ...

, Edmonton, Alberta * Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario *

Art Gallery of Ontario The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO; french: Musée des beaux-arts de l'Ontario) is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The museum is located in the Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, on Dundas Street West between McCaul and Beve ...

, Toronto *

Art Gallery of Peterborough The Art Gallery of Peterborough is a free admission, non-profit public art gallery in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. A registered charity that depends on the support of its members, it was founded in 1974 by an independent board of volunteers. In ...

, Ontario *

Beaverbrook Art Gallery The Beaverbrook Art Gallery is a public art gallery in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. It is named after William Maxwell "Max" Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook, who funded the building of the gallery and assembled the original collection. It opened i ...

, Fredericton, New Brunswick *

Canada Council The Canada Council for the Arts (french: Conseil des arts du Canada), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It acts as the federal government's principal i ...

Art Bank, Ottawa * Concordia Art Gallery, Montreal *

Museum London Museum London is an art and history museum located in London, Ontario, Canada. It is located near the forks of the Thames River. It started its operations in 1940 with London Public Library and amalgamated with London Regional Art Gallery and Lon ...

, Ontario *

, Oshawa, Ontario *Winnipeg Art Gallery

References

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sloggett, Paul 1950 births Living people Abstract painters Artists from Ontario OCAD University alumni Academic staff of OCAD University People from Northumberland County, Ontario 20th-century Canadian painters 21st-century Canadian painters Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Canadian abstract artists Canadian collage artists