Gathie Falk emerged to critical acclaim in 1968 on the occasion of her exhibition Living Room, Environmental Sculpture and Prints at the Douglas Gallery (later renamed Ace Gallery) in Vancouver, when she was forty years old. Now in her nineties, she continues to exhibit, showing new paintings as well as remounting past work. Most notably, she has been the subject of retrospectives at the Vancouver Art Gallery, in 1985 and 2000, and at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, Ontario, in 2022. Many articles and books consider her work in ceramic sculpture, installation, painting, and performance, and in 2018 she penned a memoir, Apples, etc., with art critic Robin Laurence. She is represented by Equinox Gallery in Vancouver and Michael Gibson Gallery in London, Ontario.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
1967
Gathie Falk, Odalesque Gallery, Victoria.
1968
Living Room, Environmental Sculpture and Prints, Douglas Gallery, Vancouver.
1974
Single Right Men’s Shoes, Canadian Cultural Centre, Paris.
1976–77
Herd Two & Drawings, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
1978
Gathie Falk, Edmonton Art Gallery.
1980
Gathie Falk: Night Skies, University of British Columbia, Fine Arts Gallery, Vancouver. Travelled to Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge; and Glenbow Museum, Calgary.
1985
Gathie Falk Paintings 1978–1984, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. Travelled to the Art Gallery of Hamilton; Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery, Halifax; Agnes Etherington Art Centre at Queen’s University; and Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon.
Gathie Falk Retrospective, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver.
1987
Gathie Falk, 49th Parallel: Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art, New York.
1994
Recent Works by Gathie Falk, Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, Brandon.
1999
Gathie Falk: Souvenirs du quotidien, Musée régional de Rimouski.
2000
Gathie Falk (retrospective exhibition), Vancouver Art Gallery. Travelled to the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Norman MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina; Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa; Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton.
2002
Gathie Falk: Visions, Kelowna Art Gallery.
2004
Gathie Falk/Apparel, Evergreen Cultural Centre, Coquitlam.
2014
Gathie Falk: Paperworks, Burnaby Art Gallery.
2022
Gathie Falk: Revelations, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg.
Selected Group Exhibitions
1968
Younger Vancouver Sculptors, University of British Columbia Fine Arts Gallery, Vancouver.
1969
Electrical Connection (Intermedia show), Vancouver Art Gallery.
The New Art of Vancouver, Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, California. Travelled to the Art Galleries, University of California at Santa Barbara.
1970
The Dome Show, Vancouver Art Gallery.
Survey/Sondage, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
Works Mostly on Paper, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston.
1975
Some Canadian Women Artists, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
1976
West Coast Waves, Winnipeg Art Gallery.
1977
Clay as Sculpture, Alberta College of Art Gallery, Calgary.
Four Places: Allan Detheridge, Gathie Falk, Liz Magor, An Whitlock, Vancouver Art Gallery.
1982
Greg Curnoe, Paterson Ewen, Gathie Falk, Ron Moppett, Norman MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina.
1985
Atmospheric Synthesis: Paterson Ewen, Otto Rogers, Gathie Falk, David Bierk, Art Gallery of Peterborough.
Aurora Borealis, organized by the Montreal International Centre of Contemporary Art.
British Columbia Women Artists, 1885–1985, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.
1995
Survivors, In Search of a Voice: The Art of Courage, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto.
1997
Transient Moments: Vancouver & the Performance Photograph, Presentation House Gallery, North Vancouver.
1999
Making It New! (the Big Sixties Show), Art Gallery of Windsor. Travelled to the Glenbow Museum, Calgary.
2000
ABCs of Pop Art: America, Britain, Canada, Major Artists and Their Legacy, Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts, Tallahassee.
Art BC: Masterworks from British Columbia, Vancouver Art Gallery.
2001
Portraits: Unsettled Subjects, Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery, Halifax.
2017
“Créer à rebours vers l’exposition”: The case of Aurora Borealis, VOX, Montreal.
2018
Beginning with the Seventies: GLUT, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
Intervention: 31 Women Painters / 31 Femmes Peintres, McClure Gallery, Montreal.
2019
Cosmos: Erik Olson, Gathie Falk, Margret Nazon, Glenbow Museum, Calgary.
Interviews with and Writings by the Artist
Falk, Gathie. “A Short History of Performance Art as It Influenced or Failed to Influence My Work.” Artscanada 38, no. 1 (March/April 1981): 12–14.
———. “Soft Chairs” (artist’s statement in brochure for the 1987 exhibition Gathie Falk). New York: 49th Parallel Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art, 1987.
———. “Statements.” Gathie Falk Retrospective. Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery, 1985.
Falk, Gathie, with Robin Laurence. Apples, etc.: An Artist’s Memoir. Vancouver: Figure 1 Publishing Inc., 2018.
Rynor, Becky. “An Interview with Gathie Falk.” NGC Magazine, June 2017, https://www.gallery.ca/magazine/artists/interviews/an-interview-with-gathie-falk.
Exhibition Catalogues
Amesbury, Barbra. Survivors, In Search of a Voice: The Art of Courage. Toronto: Woodlawn Arts Foundation, 1995.
Birnie Danzker, Jo-Anne, Scott Watson, and Tom Graff. Gathie Falk Retrospective. Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery, 1985.
Brown, Lorna, Greg Gibson, and Jana Tyner, eds. Beginning with the Seventies. Vancouver: Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, 2020.
Eijnsbergen, Ellen van, and Robin Laurence. Gathie Falk: Paperworks. Burnaby: Burnaby Art Gallery, 2014.
Four Places: Allan Detheridge, Gathie Falk, Liz Magor, An Whitlock. Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery, 1977.
Garver, Thomas H. The New Art of Vancouver. Santa Barbara: Art Galleries, University of California, 1969.
Gathie Falk. Edmonton: Edmonton Art Gallery, 1978.
Gathie Falk. New York: 49th Parallel, 1987.
Gathie Falk Paintings, 1978–1984. Victoria: Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, 1985.
Gathie Falk: Visions. Kelowna: Kelowna Art Gallery, 2002.
Gosselin, Claude, René Blouin, Lesley Johnstone, and Norman Thériault. Aurora Borealis. Montreal: Centre international d’art contemporain de Montréal, 1985.
Graham, Mayo. Greg Curnoe, Paterson Ewen, Gathie Falk, Ron Moppett. Regina: Norman MacKenzie Art Gallery, 1982.
———. Some Canadian Women Artists. Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1975.
Intermedia: Art for the Electronic Age! Victoria: Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, 1969.
Klunder, Harold. Intervention: 31 Women Painters / 31 Femmes Peintres. Montreal: McClure Gallery, 2018.
Laurence, Robin, Bruce Grenville, Ian M. Thom, Mayo Graham, and Sarah Milroy. Gathie Falk. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre Ltd., 2000.
Lind, Jane. Gathie Falk. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1989.
Making it New! (the Big Sixties Show). Windsor: Art Gallery of Windsor, 2000.
Milroy, Sarah, Daina Augaitis, Liz Magor, Landon Mackenzie, Nancy Tousley, John Geoghegan, and Jocelyn Anderson. Gathie Falk: Revelations. Kleinburg, Ontario: McMichael Canadian Art Collection and Figure 1 Publishing, 2022.
Night Skies: Gathie Falk. Lethbridge: Southern Alberta Art Gallery, 1980.
Pollock, Ann M. Transient Moments: Vancouver & the Performance Photograph. North Vancouver: Presentation House Gallery, 1997.
Portraits: Unsettled Subjects. Halifax: Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery, 2001.
Rosenberg, Ann. “Gathie Falk.” In Beautiful British Columbia Multiple Purpose Thermal Blankets. Vancouver: Equinox Gallery, 1981.
Spalding, Jeffrey. ABCs of Pop Art: America, Britain, Canada, Major Artists and Their Legacy. Tallahassee: Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts, 2000.
Thom, Ian M. Art BC: Masterworks from British Columbia. Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery, 2000.
Tuele, Nicholas. British Columbia Women Artists, 1885–1985: An Exhibition. Victoria: Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, 1985.
Critical Sources and Reviews
Barber, James. “After the Intermedia Party: The Art Gallery Will Never Be the Same.” The Province, Vancouver, June 1, 1970, 11.
Bronson, AA, and Peggy Gale, eds. “Performance by Artists.” Toronto: Art Metropole, 1979.
Dykk, Lloyd. “Wildly Indulgent Pieces of Theatre.” Vancouver Sun, February 4, 1971, 35.
Graff, Tom. “Gathie Falk.” In Caught in the Act: An Anthology of Performance Art by Canadian Women, edited by Tanya Mars and Johanna Householder, 223–31. Toronto: YYZ Books, 2004.
———. “Gathie Falk at Artcore.” YVR Vancouver in Review, no. 5 (December 1978 / January 1979): 6–10.
———. Gathie Falk Performance Art Retrospective. Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery, 1985. Videocassette.
Lambton, Gunda. “Gathie Falk: A Giver of Gifts.” In Stealing the Show: Seven Women Artists in Canadian Public Art, 65–80. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1994.
Martin, Elizabeth, and Vivien Meyer. Female Gazes: Seventy-Five Women Artists. Toronto: Second Story Press, 1997.
Rosenberg, Ann. “Gathie Falk Works.” Capilano Review 1 and 2, no. 24 and 25 (1982): 4–143.
———. “Vancouver: The Four Voices of Four Places.” Artmagazine (May/June 1977): 21–22.
Rossiter, Sean. “Hotrod and Cabbages: The Homely Surrealism of Gathie Falk.” Vanguard 12, no. 8 (October 1983): 40–44.
Shadbolt, Doris. “Tableau Is Her Form.” Artscanada 29, nos. 166/167/168 (Spring 1972): 30–34.
Sherbert, Garry, Annie Gérin, and Sheila Petty, eds. Canadian Cultural Poesis: Essays on Canadian Culture. Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2006.
Simmins, Richard. “Gathie Falk/Glenn Lewis.” Artscanada 27, nos. 144/145 (June 1970): 34–35.
Sirotnik, Gareth. “Gathie Falk: Things That Go Bump in the Day.” Vanguard 7, no. 1 (February 1978): 8–10.
Staley, Rosalie. “Gathie Falk/Richard Prince.” Vanguard 11, no. 4 (May 1982): 37–38.
Tousley, Nancy. “Gathie Falk.” Artscanada 38, nos. 240/241 (March/April 1981): 60.
Watson, Scott. “Gathie Falk: Paintings 1976–1984.” Canadian Art 2, no. 1 (Spring 1985): 89–90.
Watson, Scott and Sandra Martin. “Whimsical, Troubled and Bizarre: The Enigmatic Visions of Gathie Falk.” Canadian Art 2, no. 3 (Fall 1985): 52–58.
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