Gary Lee-Nova (June 26, 1943), born Gary Nairn, is a Canadian painter, printmaker,

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

, and

filmmaker Filmmaking or film production is the process by which a Film, motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission. Production then continues through screen ...

Biography

Lee-Nova was born 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; his father was an air force bombardier and navigator, his mother was a teacher. In his early art career, Lee-Nova spent 15 months in England as a student at

Coventry College City College Coventry was a further education college based in the city of Coventry, England. It was formed in 2002 through the merger of two previous colleges in the city, although through them it has roots going back to the 19th century. ...

(1961–1962) and was introduced by his fellow students and teachers to a wider vision of art-making than was available at art school in Canada at the time. As an adolescent and young adult, Lee-Nova had several hero figures, both writers: the American

William S. Burroughs William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist. He is widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major Postmodern literature, postmodern author who influen ...

, and the Canadian

Marshall McLuhan Herbert Marshall McLuhan (, ; July 21, 1911 – December 31, 1980) was a Canadian philosopher whose work is among the cornerstones of the study of media studies, media theory. Raised in Winnipeg, McLuhan studied at the University of Manitoba a ...

. He has studied, collected, and corresponded with Burroughs, and sometimes also carried Burroughsian thinking in new directions in his art-making, Lee-Nova has said. McLuhan's words about electronic media also made him an enthusiast of the computer in his art. He has also said that his thinking about art was aided by the use of hallucinogenic drugs as well as by what he calls ''philosophies'' such as

Zen Buddhism Zen (; from Chinese: '' Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka ph ...

that were becoming popular in the 1950s. Early in his exhibition history, Lee-Nova held a joint show in Vancouver with

Claude Breeze Claude Breeze , also known as Claude Herbert Breeze, and sometimes as C. Herbert (born October 9, 1938) is a Canadian figurative painter, known for paintings with raw, unsettling imagery. He is a Professor Emeritus at York University in Toronto, ...

who assisted him in his development. He started making films in 1965 and produced ''Steel Mushrooms'' in 1967 in collaboration with Dallas Selman. In 1967, he showed paintings and drawings in Toronto at the Carmen Lamanna Gallery and received praise from critic (and Vancouver Art Gallery director (1963–1967)) Richard Simmins who said he was the most promising painter from the west coast he had seen in recent years. In 1968, he showed at the Vancouver Art Gallery with Michael Morris ''Prisma: an environment'', described by reviewer Marguerite Pinney as a strange and curious summer house with programmed light, music and colour. In Vancouver, he was a co-founder of the Image Bank (with Michael Morris and

Vincent Trasov Vincent (Latin: ''Vincentius'') is a masculine given name originating from the Roman name ''Vincentius'', which itself comes from the Latin verb ''vincere'', meaning "to conquer." People with the given name Artists *Vincent Apap (1909–2003) ...

) and active in the Sound Gallery (circa 1965) and

Intermedia Intermedia is an art theory term coined in the mid-1960s by Fluxus artist Dick Higgins to describe the strategies of interdisciplinarity that occur within artworks existing between artistic genres. It was also used by John Brockman to refer to ...

(1967–1972). He also worked with the spectrum as a motif and thereby began the Image Bank's Colour Bar Research project. In addition, Lee-Nova was involved with the New York Corres-Sponge Dance School of Vancouver, and worked under the fictitious name of ''Artimus Rat'' or ''Art Rat''. Lee-Nova continued to be a key figure on the West Coast Scene in the early 1970s, working with electronic media and film as well as painting and printmaking. He continued to work on projects that might take years to execute, or be created with other artists. For instance, his ''Out to Metric'' (1975) in the

Vancouver Art Gallery The Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) is an art museum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The museum occupies a adjacent to Robson Square in downtown Vancouver, making it the largest art museum in Western Canada by building size. Designed by Fr ...

collection, was made in collaboration with artist Alan Miller. It was created at the time the metric system was replacing the Imperial system of measurement in Canada and mocks the change that was occurring in the language about measurement through its construction. It used about 1400 yardsticks made into a partial room eight feet high. Lee-Nova said about the work:

"The work is an expression of an aspect of the nature of language. I regard a system of measurement as a language system.

Lee-Nova's work has been exhibited at galleries such as the Vancouver Art Gallery, Bau-Xi Gallery (Toronto),

University of Saskatchewan The University of Saskatchewan (U of S, or USask) is a Universities in Canada, Canadian public university, public research university, founded on March 19, 1907, and located on the east side of the South Saskatchewan River in Saskatoon, Saskatch ...

, the Western Front, the

Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery The Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in Vancouver, British Columbia, on the campus of the University of British Columbia. The gallery is housed in a building designed by architect Peter Cardew which opened in 1995 ...

, the

Burnaby Art Gallery The Burnaby Art Gallery (abbreviated as BAG) is an art museum in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. The museum is located on the northern periphery of Deer Lake Park, situated off of Deer Lake Avenue. The museum occupies Fairacres Mansion, designa ...

, the

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 ...

, the Demarco Gallery (Edinburgh) and the Paris Biennale. His papers are in the Gary Lee-Nova Fonds,

, Vancouver. In 2021 the

held a survey exhibition titled ''Gary Lee-Nova: Oblique Trajectories'' of his work, accompanied by a publication. He has been a teacher at the

Emily Carr University of Art and Design The Emily Carr University of Art and Design (stylized as Emily Carr University of Art + Design and abbreviated as ECU) is a public university of art school, art and design located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Founded in 1925 as the Van ...

, Vancouver, Chairperson Interdisciplinary Studies Division (1984–1988), lecturer in linguistics, semiotics and media history for 7 years and an instructor in Drawing and Computer Applications for about 25 years (retired 2008). In 2018 he received the title Professor Emeritus.

Selected public collections

Agnes Etherington Art Centre The Agnes Etherington Art Centre is located in Kingston, Ontario, on the campus of Queen's University. The gallery has received a number of awards for its exhibitions from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Association of Art Galleries ...

, Kingston *

Canada Council The Canada Council for the Arts (), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporations of Canada, Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It is Canada's public arts funder, with a mandate to ...

Art Bank, Ottawa *

Institute of Contemporary Arts The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is an modernism, artistic and cultural centre on The Mall (London), The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. Located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps a ...

(ICA), London, England *

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 *

, Ottawa *

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 ...

, Oshawa *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee-Nova, Gary 1943 births Living people Artists from Toronto Canadian video artists Canadian contemporary artists Canadian multimedia artists 20th-century Canadian painters 20th-century Canadian sculptors Canadian male sculptors 20th-century Canadian male artists