John Greer: Hard Thought by Ray Cronin

A Gaspereau Field Guide to Canadian Artists: No. 4

When John Greer (b. 1944) started teaching sculpture at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in the 1970s, the college was fast becoming one of the incubators of the emerging international Conceptual Art movement. From his early experiments in conceptual sculpture, Greer’s artistic practice shifted to re-engage with traditional sculptural forms and techniques, re-imagining them in a way that would make him a pivotal figure in contemporary sculpture in Canada. In his essay, Ray Cronin recounts the arc of Greer’s career, demonstrating how Greer’s work refreshes and extends our understanding of the language of sculpture and the way in which thought might be made manifest in material.

Ray Cronin is a Nova Scotia-based writer and curator. Between 2011 and 2015 he worked at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia as both curator and director. He is the founding curator of the Sobey Art Award. Cronin has written on visual arts for magazines and newspapers for over two decades and is presently the visual arts blogger for Halifax Magazine. He is also the author of the ebook Alex Colville: Art and Life (Arts Canada Institute) and Our Maud: The Art, Life and Legacy of Maud Lewis (Art Gallery of Nova Scotia).

2019 / Canadian Art, Biography, Artists / Trade paper / 64 pp