Robert Youds

Robert Youds, a brief narrative:

I graduated from the University of Victoria in 1978 with a BFA, and completed my MFA from York University, Toronto in 1982.

I have been working and exhibiting my artwork professionally since the late 70s. While I initially began my career as a painter, by the early 80s I became interested in issues of colour and space beyond the limitations of the historically preordained aesthetic boundaries. These goals developed into my career-long query of real space and its relationship to the constructed object. Perhaps by today’s standards this may no longer seem like such a radical claim, but with a few exceptions of internationally known artists like Judd, Stella, Palermo, Truit, Flavin, Pfaff, Irwin—among other notables of the time—there were not many artists significantly contributing toward the jurisdictional shift away from and therefore between the identifying areas of sculpture and painting. This early change in my work was also being driven my growing interest in architecture and industrial design. I saw these professional fields as holding even further possibilities for my artworks operation within the social and psychological realms of viewer experience.

I have had my work shown in prestigious galleries and institutions such as Surrey Art Gallery, BC (2019), Site Santa Fe, NM (1999), Vancouver Art Gallery, BC (2015), National Gallery of Canada, ON (2010), Xi’an Art Museum, China (2014), Remai Modern, SK (2019), Power Plant, ON (1995), Oliver Art Center, CCAC, Oakland, CA (1999), Art Gallery of Ontario, ON (2003), Mendel Art Gallery, SK, (2013), Today Museum, Beijing, China (2015), Glenbow Museum, AB (2006), Museum of Mexico City (1999) and Hamilton Art Gallery, ON (2021), among many others.