Saskatchewan Artist Joe Fafard Celebrated Rural Canadian Life in His Bronze Sculptures. See Images of His Heartfelt Animal Portraits Here

Artnet Gallery Network September 25, 2020 ShareShare This Article

Born in 1942, the artist Joe Fafard was raised in the prairie farmlands of Saskatchewan, the son of 11th-generation French Canadian parents. Fafard, who died in 2019, homed in on the specificities and beauties of this rural landscapes he knew so intimately, creating bronze sculptures of the region’s animals, landscapes, and peoples.

Now, the new exhibition “Joe Fafard: The Intimate Canadian Landscape” at Oeno Gallery in Bloomfield, Ontario, is hoping to bring a new generation of eyes to the artist and his legacy. Several dozen of the artist’s bronze sculptures, primarily of horses and cows, are featured alongside a selection of works by four Canadian landscape artists: photographer Mark Bartkiw, sculptor Cheryl Wilson Smith, painter F. Lipari, and mixed-media artist Edward Falkenberg.

Ranging in size from the hand-held to several feet tall, Fafard’s animal sculptures are endearing to behold—full of lively details that reveal themselves upon close looking. One has the sense of looking at individual beings, imbued with humor, kindness, and personality. The viewer feels, by proxy, the heartfelt affection the artist most certainly had for his subjects.

See images from “Joe Fafard: The Intimate Canadian Landscape” below.