Rob O'Flanagan
My art is very much rooted in reflection and feeling. My paintings rely heavily on the love and joy of colour, the challenge of composition and the impulse to hint at a story.
A painting generally starts with a colour field stain that becomes a setting or gathering place with the potential to hold a variety of components.
Through reflection and play, the nascent surface attracts abstract, figurative and landscape elements that suggest place, narrative, symbolism and mystery.
I am driven by the pure pleasure of painting and by the compulsion to disrupt a captivating surface with precarious amalgams not easily arrived at.
Thoughts about the future of humanity, environmental ruin, the absurd, the sacred and the tragic are among my preoccupations while painting. When I am able to transcend the racket in my mind, intuition and spontaneity take its place.
Risk is an integral part of a process that has surprising resolutions.
Curriculum Vitae
Selected Exhibitions:
Group:
2004, Field Notes: Rob, Terry, Tom O’Flanagan. Art Gallery of Alberta (formerly Art Gallery of Edmonton)
2006, Three-ply: Rob, Terry, Tom O’Flanagan. Art Gallery of Sudbury.
2016, Artful Aging, The Boarding House Gallery, Guelph.
2021, Northern Lights Art Exhibition, Tom Thomson Gallery, Owen Sound.
2022. Is This Real Life, Art Gallery of Sudbury, Sudbury.
Solo:
2020, Imaginary Landscapes. Red Brick Gallery, Guelph
2009, I Am Aware of the Crisis. Joan Ferneyhough Gallery, North Bay.
2001, Durham Street Paintings, Joan Ferneyhough Gallery, North Bay.
1997, Face and Form, Galerie Pink, Montreal.
1994, Nutana Combines, Artworks Gallery, Saskatoon
1993, The Berg Paintings, Artworks Gallery, Saskatoon, SK.
Selected Media:
“Winging it with Rob O’Flanagan.” Interview with Marc Cohen and Charles Hackbarth on YouTube series Winging It, Oct. 2020.
“Snapshots of Travel shine in art expo.” Jenny Jelen, Sudbury.com, Sept. 5, 2012.
“Art is an O’Flanagan Obsession.” Lara Bradley, The Sudbury Star. 2006
“Brothers give new life to old material,” by Gilbert Bouchard, the Edmonton Journal, March 12, 2004.
“A Trio in E-Ville,” by Mari Sasano, See Magazine, Edmonton, March 12, 2004.
"Now it's my turn to do the interview," by Bonnie Kogos, Sudbury Star, May 25, 1998.
"Tragedy at Heart of O'Flanagan's Paintings," by Sheila Robertson. Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, September 19, 1992.
Literary Publication (Selected):
2018-2020, Poems published in Rhapsody, annual journal of poetry, Vocamus Press, Guelph.
2015, Open Up the Sky: A Poetic Conversation. Co-authored book of poetry with Heather Cardin. Vocamus Press, Guelph.
2006, “Alien Parasites of Big Land Farm,” published in Bluffs, Your Scrivener Press literary anthology, Sudbury.
2006, Writer of “Path to Grace,” essay for Franklin Carmichael, an Art Gallery of Sudbury exhibition catalog.
2001, Author of In All Things the Breath of Spirit: The Paintings and Sculpture of Elena
Zebrauskaite-Weir. A commissioned study of Parry Sound visual artist.
2000, The Blown Kiss Collection, book of short stories, with photographs. Catchfire Press.
1995, "Kilroy, The Lunatic Laugh." Short story published in Spring '95 issue of Grain, Canadian literary quarterly.
EDUCATION:
1982, Bachelor of Arts (Advanced), College of Arts and Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon.
1982-1984, Studies in painting and drawing, and creative writing, University of Saskatchewan.
Professional:
Rob is an award-winning print journalist. He received six Ontario Newspaper Awards, the highest honour for daily news journalists in Ontario, in various categories, including as a columnist, arts writer and feature writer. He has reported from Lesotho and South Africa, as well as from New York City and New Jersey following 9/11, and has written about his travels to China, Israel and Ireland.
Rob was raised on a farm north of Melfort. He began painting and writing fiction and poetry while studying at the University of Saskatchewan. After working in Ontario for 28 years, he returned to Saskatchewan in 2022 with wife Valerie. They live in Saskatoon.
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