Gord Smith in summer issue of MAG

As regulars at the gallery will know, I firmly believe that Gord Smith "is unquestionably one of the great sculptors of post-war Canada." (quoting myself on Gord's artist's page). From his first welded bronze work completed at age 21 for the Frazer-Hickson Library in Montreal, he had completed 37 commissions by the mid-1980s and seen his work acquired by major institutional and private collectors. He may be best known for the “Canada Screen” work commissioned by the Government of Canada for the Canadian Pavillion at Expo ’67 (seen just below); this Cor-Ten steel work measured 110 feet by 12 feet, and won him Second Prize for the entire Expo ’67 in the Monuments and Fountains category.

This past year, he took on two new large-scale commissions in a new medium that he has been working with for the past half-dozen years, wooden dowels. Each is now in buildings owned by the Atria Development Corporation. To the left is Smith's life-size "Inspiratrice", currently being exhibited at the gallery.

For its summer (July & August) issue, MAG/Mass Art Guide gave Smith's dowel work its cover and feature editorial essay, which is well worth a look.

Alongside a special display of some eight dowel pieces at the gallery, we also have a cross-section of figurative works in metal by Gord as part of our Go Figure Summer Salon. To the left is one work from his fantastic "Nuclear" series of 1961-63: "A People."