Michael Snow

Michael James Aleck Snow, painter, sculptor, photographer, filmmaker, musician (b at Toronto 10 Dec 1929). After study at the ONTARIO COLLEGE OF ART (1948-52) and a visit to Europe (1953-54), Michael Snow worked for a small Toronto film company until 1956, during which time he produced his first independent film. In 1956 Michael Snow held his first solo exhibition at Avrom Isaacs's Greenwich Gallery in Toronto. Following extended stays in New York (1962-64), he settled there in 1964, returning to Toronto in 1972.

Between 1961 and 1967 his work in all media was based on the silhouette of a young woman. This important series of works, titled the Walking Woman Works, culminated in an 11-part sculpture for the Ontario Pavilion at EXPO 67. In 1970 Michael Snow represented Canada at the Venice Biennale and was also given a retrospective exhibition of his work at the ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO. In 1979 a comprehensive survey of his work was shown in Lucerne, Bonn and Munich. The same year, he received a sculptural commission, Flight Stop, for Toronto's EATON CENTRE. For Expo 86 he was commissioned to produce a major work in holography; The Spectral Image is a grouping of installation pieces involving 48 holographic images. A major retrospective of his work was held at the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Power Plant in 1994. In 2007, the artist was made a Companion of the ORDER OF CANADA and in 2012, in celebration of his winning of the Gershon Iskowitz Award the previous year, Michael Snow's work was featured in an exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario titled "Objects of Vision" comprising abstract sculptures from the 1950s, the late 1960s and 1982.

Film has occupied a major place in his work from the mid-1960s with works such as Wavelength (1967), La Région centrale (1971), Rameau's Nephew by Diderot (Thanx to Dennis Young) by Wilma Schoen (1974) and Presents (1981). Snow has received critical acclaim in the US and Europe as an experimental filmmaker and in 2000 was awarded a Governor General's Award in recognition of his accomplishment in this area.

Michael Snow's work has been continually concerned with defining and redefining the relationships between media themselves, the acts and interpretations of perception and the complex of sound, language and meaning. He is also an accomplished pianist and trumpet player. He has played professionally, was a member of the Artists' Jazz Band in Toronto and was founder of the Canadian Creative Music Collective.

Author DAVID BURNETT

Suggested Reading
R. Cornwell, Snow Seen (1980); L. Dompierre,Walking Woman Works, 1961-1967 (1983).

Links to Other Sites
The Collected Writings of Michael Snow
A brief synopsis of "The Collected Writings of Michael Snow" the website for Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

Michael Snow
A biography and online gallery of art by the multitalented artist Michael Snow. From the National Gallery of Canada.

Improvisation, Representation, and Abstraction in Music and Art
Michael Snow and Jesse Stewart discuss musical improvisation and the intersections between the sonic and visual arts. From the website for “Critical Studies in Improvisation.”

The Music Gallery fonds
Information page for the "Music Gallery fonds" at York University. The Music Gallery is Toronto's Centre for Creative Music. Focuses on the creation, development and performance of art music from all genres.

Michael Snow wins $40K Iskowitz Prize
A CBC News article about internationally renowned Canadian artist Michael Snow winning the 2011 Gershon Iskowitz Prize.

Michael Snow: Objects of Vision
About the Art Gallery of Michael Snow's AGO exhibit "Objects of Vision" which explores the veteran Toronto artist's fascination with the notion of looking and framing perception. From the Art Gallery of Ontario.