Robert Fones

Beginning in the late 1960s, Robert Fones has developed a practice that includes sculpture, painting, engraving, photography, poetry, writing, and art criticism. In his work Fones often combines elements from popular culture and design, such as packaging, pictograms and letterforms, with his investigations into geological, cultural, and industrial history.

Born in London, Ontario, in 1949, Robert Fones held his first solo exhibition in this city at the 20/20 Gallery in 1969 and is a founding member of the Forest City Gallery (1973), also in London, for which he designed an original logo reminiscent of tree rings. Since then, he has exhibited his works in Canada, the United States, and Germany, and has curated the exhibition A Spanner in the Works: The Furniture of Russell Spanner, 1950-1953 at the Power Plant Gallery (1990) and Cutout: Greg Curnoe, Shaped Collages 1965-1968 for Museum London (2011).

He has taught at the University of Toronto, Mississauga (Visual Studies) after having taught at the Ontario College of Art and Design and Sheridan College (Art & Art History). The artist’s book holds an important place in his artistic production. He has published several books with Coach House Books and Art Metropole, including Anthropomorphiks (1971), Field Identification (1985), and Head Paintings (1997). Fones also writes about art and design for magazines such as C Magazine, Parachute, Vanguard, Ciel Variable, Canadian Art, and Azure Magazine. He received the Toronto Arts Award for Visual Arts in 1999 and a Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts in 2011. He has been represented by the Olga Korper Gallery since 2000. [Source: VOX, 2024]