Eric Glavin
(1965–)
Eric Glavin
1965–
Eric Glavin (1965– ) is a Canadian multi-media artist and a founding member of the Toronto-based collective Painting Disorders. Glavin’s artistic practice encompasses a wide range of mediums, including video, performance, photography, sculpture, and painting. Glavin was born in Montréal and later moved to Toronto to attend the Ontario College of Art, with a specific focus on experimental arts. Throughout his career, Eric has dedicated himself to provoking viewers to contemplate the intricate dynamics between urban structures and the visual elements that define them. Utilizing photographs as a foundation, he constructs abstract renditions of these architectural fronts on the computer. His primary focus is documenting high-rises and townhouse developments, particularly those designed for low-income residents.
Glavin’s fascination with architectural facades stems from their connection to grids and geometric patterns prevalent in modernist, hard-edge painting. His artistic vision seeks to dissolve the boundaries between abstract and figurative imagery, manifesting in the creation of ready-made paintings. Simultaneously, Glavin acknowledges the major influence these unassuming structures, often originating from the 1960s and 1970s, exert on his urban encounters. They serve as tangible embodiments of larger issues within the urban environment.
lavin’s works have achieved national and international recognition by exhibiting in solo and group exhibitions in Germany, Austria, Denmark, the United States, and Canada. His recent work, Duffrin, 2019, draws inspiration from the now-lost exterior of Yen’s Flower Shop situated at 2020 Dufferin Street. The storefront’s previous facade displayed a captivating arrangement of an opaque blue plexiglass grid, stretching to the roofline, is an example of his ongoing photographic documentation of the façades project.