Paintings, By The Numbers Gallery 2024
~ Click on an artwork to enlarge and scroll through gallery ~
Artist
Ken Kirkby
Kenneth Michael Kirkby was born during an air raid in London, England in 1940. The timing may have foreshadowed the warrior-painter he was to become. He grew up in Portugal and in the late 1950s, he realized his dream to move to Canada.
He spent five years in the Canadian Arctic and promised the Inuit people that he would find a way to raise awareness of their issues in the rest of Canada. This promise became “Isumataq” – the world’s largest oil-on-canvas portrait. The 12 ft high by 152 ft long painting of the Arctic landscape was exhibited at the Canadian Parliament in 1992 and Ontario Place in 1993. Kirkby then turned his “warrior-painter” gaze on the depletion of the salmon stocks and the destruction of their habitats in B.C. rivers.
Ken died on June 20, 2023 in his home on Vancouver Island. He was 82 and was active in his studio until a few weeks before his death, from cancer.
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