Artist. Born in Vancouver in 1940, Eric Metcalfe began drawing and printmaking while attending St. Michael’s University School (Victoria). While still in his teens, Metcalfe studied with Czech artist Jan Zack. After traveling through Europe in his early twenties, Metcalfe returned to Victoria in 1963 to pursue a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Victoria. There, he studied with Joan Brown, Denis Bowen, Tony Emery, Dana Atchley and Maxwell Bates. Bates, in particular, was highly influential to Metcalfe’s artistic practice. In the late 1960s, Metcalfe became involved with Michael Morris and Vincent Trasov’s Image Bank correspondence network under the persona of Dr. or Mr. Brute. In 1969 he married artist Kate Craig and they began a collaborative project—Craig was know as Lady Brute—collecting leopard material to fill the fictional world of Brutopia as means to explore the quotidian nature of erotica within popular visual culture. His work has been exhibited widely, in both Canada and abroad, including at the National Gallery of Canada, the Vancouver Art Gallery, Presentation House Gallery, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Ludwig Museum (Cologne). He is co-founder of the Western Front Society, is a sessional instructor at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, and serves on the board of the LIVE Performance Art Biennial Society.
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.