Joseph Drapell

1940–

Joseph Drapell (1940– ) is a Czech-Canadian abstract and contemporary painter, a member of the Painters Eleven group who was born in Humpolec, Czechoslovakia, and fled the totalitarian system in the Soviet Union to Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1966. In 1968, Drapell crafted a public sculpture titled: Life (1968), a concrete sculpture found at Quinpool Road in Halifax. Drapell completed studies at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, between 1968 and 1970. During this time he evolved his style to encompass a distinct approach using a broad spreading device affixed to movable support, allowing the artist to apply paint in a way that creates dynamic and complex shapes and movements onto the canvas.

After settling permanently in Toronto between 1972 and 1974, Drapell became a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, belonging to the generation that succeeded the Painters Eleven movement. Drapell experienced a significant artistic breakthrough that year with his Great Spirit Paintings, which were shown at the Jared Sable Gallery in Toronto. Since then, he has been shown extensively in solo exhibitions across Canada, with his artwork featured in private and public collections worldwide, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the National Gallery in Prague, and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery.