Our next Artist You Need To Know is Erik Gamble (1950 – 2007).
A prominent Canadian painter and printmaker, Erik Gamble (sometimes also known as Eric Gamble) lived his entire life in Toronto, where he was born, and was an important member of the groundbreaking abstract painting scene there for several decades. Gamble was producing his works concurrently to many significant Toronto painters, including previously featured Artists You Need To Know like David Bolduc, Alex Cameron and Paul Sloggett.
Writing about Gamble’s work in 1976, Michael Greenwood offered the following : “From a base in Kandinsky, Gamble scores for a full orchestra of clearly defined though complex shapes and colours, employing the entire chromatic gamut from palest yellow to violet. The resulting ensembles are emotionally robust and symphonically resonant; it is not surprising to learn that he has a passion for music.”
Gamble attended the Central Technical School (after leaving Jarvis Collegiate, as some biographers have described him as a “rebellious individual who refused to conform to systems or conventions”) and would later take several classes at the New School of Art (1968 – 1969). He also was active as a musician, and often spoke of his growth and development as a musician and visual artist as being overlapping aspects of his creativity.
He worked in a wide range of media within the spheres of painting (oil, acrylic, watercolour) and printmaking (though mostly serigraph or silk screening) and various combined iterations of these formats. Gamble’s primary focus was pure abstraction, though he occasional made forays into landscape and in his mark making and linework he sometimes offered interpretations that showed an influence of the Runic alphabet.
By the time he was in his early twenties, Gamble had carved out a space for himself as an important abstract painter in Toronto and beyond, and was already exhibiting regularly with the renowned David Mirvish Gallery in the city.
Gamble’s work can be found in the collections of the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Agnes Etherington Art Centre (Kingston, Ontario), Art Gallery of Northumberland (Cobourg, Ontario), Canada Council Art Bank (Ottawa, Ontario), Carleton University Art Gallery (Ottawa, Ontario), Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery (Concordia University, Montreal), Robert McLaughlin Gallery (Oshawa, Ontario), University of Lethbridge Art Gallery (Lethbridge, Alberta), University of Saskatchewan Art Collection (Saskatoon), and the University of Toronto Art Collection (Ontario).
Throughout his career, Gamble was awarded multiple Canada Council Grants (every year from 1974 to 1978).
Gamble had numerous exhibitions over his career – both solo and part of larger group shows – and was represented by the David Mirvish Gallery in Toronto and Watson / de Nagy & Company in Houston, Texas.
Notable exhibitions that comprise Gamble’s CV include Abstractions: An Exhibition of Current Abstract Painting in the Province of Ontario (which featured at the Montreal Olympics in 1976 and toured to several venues); Cameron, Craven, Gamble, Sloggett : Four Toronto Painters (Art Gallery of Ontario, 1976); Ontario Now 2: A Survey of Contemporary Art (initiated by the Art Gallery of Hamilton and touring to several other locals, 1977); Aspects of Canadian Painting in the Seventies (Glenbow Museum, Calgary, 1980); Viewpoint: Twenty-nine by Nine (again at the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario with subsequent tours, 1981); and Hidden Values: Contemporary Canadian Art in Corporate Collections at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection (1994 – 1995).
From York University : Gamble’s “large-scale abstract paintings displayed vibrant colors, intricate textures, and a distinctive blend of organic and rectangular forms. While he became renowned for his pure abstractions, which focused on color, shape, line, and texture, he also ventured into landscape and figurative subjects.”
Erik Gamble died in 2007 : a fine remembrance of Gamble was published in the Globe and Mail – written by a previously featured Artist You Need To Know Lupe Rodriguez – and can be seen here.
An excerpt from that piece : “Erik painted diligently and with passion. His large, abstract paintings, with their luscious vivid colours, rich textures and unique combination of organic and rectangular forms, were accomplished works of art.”