Artist, educator. Gathie Falk was born in Alexander, Manitoba in 1928. She was forced to quit school at sixteen due to financial constrains. She began working in factories and performing of menial jobs to help support her family. Falk managed to complete high school via correspondence classes and went on to attend teacher’s college, eventually teaching at elementary schools (1953-1965). During this time, Falk also studied painting and drawing with J.A.S. Macdonald and art history with Ian McNairn at the University of British Columbia, in addition to taking courses at the Vancouver School of Art (now Emily Carr University of Art + Design) and evening courses though local school boards and community centers. In 1965, Falk left her job as a teacher to pursue her art practice full-time.
For the majority of the 1960s, Falk worked in painting and ceramics. She was introduced to performance art though visiting New York-based artist Deborah Hay. Falk would create fifteen works from 1968 to 1972, which she performed until 1977. The following year, Falk returned to painting. However, within this medium, she continued to make work that explored her interest in sculptural forms. In 1997, she returned to working within sculpture proper. Falk received the forth-annual Gershon Iskwitz Prize in 1990 and was made a member of the Order of Canada in 1997. Her work is included in the collections of the Winnipeg Art Gallery, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Vancouver Art Gallery. Her work was the subject of a retrospective organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery in 2000 that toured to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, the MacKenzie Art Gallery, and the National Gallery of Canada. She lives and works in Vancouver.
Additional information and materials about Gathie Falk are available on request in Art, Architecture and Planning at the University of British Columbia Library. http://www.library.ubc.ca/finearts/
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.