Brandon Vickerd

I am a Toronto based sculptor and Professor of Visual Arts at York University, and received a BFA from NSCAD in 1999, followed by an MFA from the University of Victoria in 2001.

In the past several years my exhibited projects have been diverse in form and content, including site specific interventions, public performances and object based sculpture. Projects such as Dance of the Cranes (Toronto, 2009) are community based projects outside the gallery that seek to transform the cityscape into a stage for performance. This performances consist of choreographed dance executed by high-rise construction cranes perched upon condos developments while viewers watch from the street bellow. Public works such as Satellite and Northern Satellite are similar attempts to engage the public in a discourse about our conflicting ways of understanding landscape. In gallery exhibitions I engage the audience through employing the language of monumental figurative sculpture subverting dominant cultural narratives by creating monuments to popular culture characters (Dead Astronaut, Chrome Ghost). Purposely diverse, my work is an examination of sculpture as a catalyst for critical thought, enriching the audience’s engagement with the physical world through the creation of spectacle.

I have received numerous awards and grants, including a New Opportunities Grant from the Canadian Fund for Innovation (2005), a Research Develop Initiative Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (2010) as well as awards from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Toronto Arts Council, and the Ontario Arts Council.

www.brandonvickerd.com