Brian Groombridge (born December 18, 1953) is a Canadian

visual artist The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual a ...

. He currently lives and works in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

Biography

Groombridge was born in

Sarnia, Ontario Sarnia is a city in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada. It had a Canada 2021 Census, 2021 population of 72,047, and is the largest city on Lake Huron. Sarnia is located on the eastern bank of the junction between the Upper and Lower Great Lakes, ...

in 1953. He attended Sheridan College in 1972, and continued at the

Ontario College of Art Ontario College of Art & Design University, commonly known as OCAD University or OCAD U, is a public art university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its main campus is located within Toronto's Grange Park and Entertainment District neighbourhoods ...

(O.C.A., now OCAD University) from 1974 to 1978. In 1977 he became part of O.C.A.'s

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

Off-Campus Study Program. Groombridge works in various media including screen-print, letterpress and sculpture. His work has been presented across

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

and abroad at venues including Het Apollohuis, Eindhoven,

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

; Cold City Gallery, Toronto; Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; National Gallery of Canada,

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

; Art Gallery of

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

, Halifax; Plug In ICA, Winnipeg; and The Power Plant, Toronto.YYZ Artists' Outlet. Brian Groombridge: small telescopes. http://www.yyzartistsoutlet.org/2012/09/groombridg/ His work has been collected by various public institutions including Art Gallery of Hamilton; Art Gallery of Nova Scotia; Art Gallery of Ontario; Museum London;

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's National museums of Canada, national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the List of large ...

; Vancouver Art Gallery; and numerous private collections.

Art Practice

Brian Groombridge's internationally exhibited work is characterized by a reductive,

minimalist In visual arts, music, and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in the post-war era in western art. The movement is often interpreted as a reaction to abstract expressionism and modernism; it anticipated contemporary post-mi ...

style with subject matter inspired by historical sources such as facts, data and measurements that usually pertain to the art world. As Jen Hutton writes in her 2013 essay Galileo's Finger, " roombridge'ssculptures, installations, and wall works employ a strict rationality: hard edges, cool metals, and bright, smooth finishes. If there is decoration, it is austere. If there is text, it is extremely concise or merely a label."Hutton, Jen. Galileo's Finger. Exhibition brochure, YYZ Artists' Outlet, Toronto, 201

/ref> Groombridge's work often refers to the transient nature of things, and plays with the idea of fluctuation by presenting meaning and perception as flexible, not fixed. In a 2008 The Globe and Mail, Globe and Mail article by Gary Michael Dault, Groombridge is quoted as saying ""I love the arrested moment. Meaning that moment when just to look at something stops it in its tracks—like slicing one frame from a film."Gary Michael Dault. Could this be a radio? Maybe just for today. The Globe and Mail, 8 November 2008 Groombridge's work combines poetic and literal elements to comment on select moments of history and life that are worthy of contemplation and respect.Lau, Yam. …the wing span of an owl, enabling flight… (rumination on the lives of two birds and a man). Exhibition brochure, YYZ Artists' Outlet, Toronto, 201

/ref> In his work Groombridge also often refers to systems of knowledge such as

measurement Measurement is the quantification of attributes of an object or event, which can be used to compare with other objects or events. In other words, measurement is a process of determining how large or small a physical quantity is as compared to ...

geography Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...

and

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wo ...

. As E. C. Woodley states in a 2013 review in Art in America, "Signs of engagement with the cosmos appear frequently in Brian Groombridge's work, representing a hunger for knowledge beyond ourselves and a faith in such knowledge even if it is minuscule compared with what we don't know."Woodley, E. C. Brian Groombridge. Art in America, February 2013
/ref>

, 9 December 2000; Everett-Green, Robert. Sculpture that knows its place. The Globe and Mail, 30 August 1986; Genereux, Linda. Brian Groombridge: Toronto Sculpture Garden. Artforum,(October 1990)179; Grenville, Bruce. The New City of Sculpture. C Magazine, no.3(Fall 1984)78-81; Herman, Joel. Joel Herman on Brian Groombridge. Framework 11/12, November 2012; Holubizky, Ihor. Brian Groombridge. Toronto: The Power Plant, 1988; Johnston, Wayne. Upstairs and Down: Installations. University of Western Ontario Gazette, 15 September 1981; Mays, John Bentley. Poetic Polarities. The Globe and Mail, 18 July 1990; Miller, Earl. Focus: Brian Groombridge. Canadian Art, (Summer 1989)87; Moser, Gabrielle. Site Exercises. ARTnews, October 2010; Reeve, Charles, and

Siobhan Roberts Siobhan Roberts is a Canadian science journalist, biographer, and historian of mathematics. Education Roberts was born in Belleville, Ontario. She earned a degree in history at Queen's University, then a graduate degree in journalism from Rye ...

. Brian Groombridge. Toronto: Susan Hobbs Gallery, 2008; Reeve, Charles. Brian Groombridge. Frieze, March 2013; Sandals, Leah. Upending Expectations. The National Post, 14 August 2010; van Peer, René. Uitersten bijeen in Apollohuis. Eindhoven Dagblad, 5 November 1991; Vartanian, Hrag. The Art of Paper in Montreal. Hyperallergic Blog, April 26, 2013; Webb, Marshall. A Journey Around the New City of Sculpture. Canadian Art, 1:2(Winter 1984-85)74-75;9 Woodley, E.C. Brian Groombridge: YYZ and Susan Hobbs. Art in America, February 2013; Woodley, E.C. Brian Groombridge. Border Crossings, Issue 125, March 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Groombridge, Brian Living people 1953 births Canadian sculptors Canadian male sculptors Canadian multimedia artists People from Sarnia Artists from Ontario OCAD University alumni

Biography

Art Practice

Further reading

References