Artist. Tom Burrows was born in 1940. He received a Bachelor of Art in Art History from the University of British Columbia (1967). He continued his postgraduate studies at St. Martin’s School of Art in London, England until 1969. Burrows practice derives from a post-Anthony Caro interest in process and new materials. He was a leading figure in Vancouver’s art scene in the 1970s, part of a group of artists who were experimenting with a new role for sculpture. His process included research into squatting and homelessness and work with aluminum, fiberglass, and photography. At the time, he was interested in Russian constructivism and the social potential of avant-garde practice.
His work is associated with the artists who worked at the Granville Grange studio in the 1970s, including Roy Kiyooka and Glen Toppings. The Granville Grange artists were interested in a cottage industry approach to the fabrication of art based on constructivist paradigms utilizing, in particular, fiberglass and lamination. In recent years, part of Burrows practice has been the creation of almost monochromatic panels that revive the modernist concern with the material nature of the object reduced to issues of surface, scale, and the occupation of space. He began exhibiting work with the Bau-Xi Galleries in 1995 and started showing at Foster/White in 2004. Burrows has had solo exhibitions in London, Rome, Tokyo, Berlin, New York, Edinburgh, and across Canada. His work is included in private, corporate, and public collections in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
Discrete project sites documenting the work of specific artists and collectives in detail.
Essays and conversation providing a context for exploring the Project Sites and Archives.
Video interviews conducted between December 2008 and May 2009 reflecting on Vancouver’s art scene in the sixties.