Jeffrey Spalding is an artist, educator and art museum professional.
Born in Edinburgh, Scotland 1951, he obtained his BA from the University of Guelph, (Guelph, Ontario); MA from Ohio State University (Columbus, Ohio) and MFA from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (Halifax, Nova Scotia). Spalding has taught at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design; York University; The Banff Centre; and The University of Lethbridge. He has been an invited artist and guest speaker internationally, and has delivered lectures at the majority of art institutions in Canada.
He has served in leadership roles for major museums, President of the Glenbow Museum 2007-2009, Director and Chief Curator 2002-2007 of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. From 1999-2002, he was Professor of Art, Florida State University and Director of the Appleton Museum of Art, Ocala, Florida and prior was Professor of Art and Director/Chief Curator at the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery 1982-1999. Previously he was Director of the Anna Leonowens Art Gallery of Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.
His exhibition record as an artist, like that of the list of public and corporate collections, is diverse. His paintings have been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions.
Works by the artist are in the collections of: The National Gallery of Canada, Vancouver Art Gallery, Musee d’art contemporain de Montreal, Musee des Beaux Arts de Montreal, McMichael Canadian Collection, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Art Gallery of Alberta, Glenbow Museum, Banff Centre, Mendel Art Gallery, Mackenzie Art Gallery, Art Gallery of Hamilton, The Canadian Embassy, Washington, The Canadian Consulate, Sydney, Canada Council Art Bank, as well as most principal museums and public collections in Canada.
In 1997, The Art Gallery of Ontario mounted a solo exhibition of Spalding's video art of the early seventies. His work is reproduced and discussed in numerous published surveys of Canadian Art, notably: "Canadian Art from its Beginnings to 2000" as well as “Canadian Paintings Prints and Drawings” both by Anne Newlands; as well as "Canadian Art in the Twentieth Century" by Joan Murray.
Spalding was Director, Anna Leonowens Gallery, NSCAD; Assistant Curator, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia; then Curator of Art, Glenbow Museum (Calgary, Alberta). For seventeen years, Spalding was Professor of Art and Director of the Art Gallery of the University of Lethbridge, serving in the capacity of Curator of the Collections and Professor of Art commencing in 1982 teaching in the areas of studio, art history and museum studies. From 1995-1997 he served as Assistant Dean, School of Fine Arts, Division of Art
In his capacity as Director of the Art Gallery, Spalding oversaw the building of the University of Lethbridge permanent collection from 212 art objects in 1982 to 13,000 art works by 1999 through the donations from art supporters. The collection comprises primarily 19th & 20th Century art of Canada, Britain, USA, & Europe with substantial support collections of the art of Inuit, First Peoples, New Guinea and Micronesia. Spalding has organized over 150 exhibitions for display primarily in North America and has been a perennial curatorial contributor to: Calgary's Artweek/Art Walk Festivals; Art 97 and Art 98 International Art Exposition and Fair, Vancouver; Toronto International Art Fair 2000, as well as Edmonton's The Works, art festival. He presented a public art museum exhibition as a contribution to the November 2003 Toronto International Art Fair. For his entry he selected: The Sobey Art Award 2002.
Professor Spalding served from its inception as co-Director, The Institute for Modern and Contemporary Art, Calgary, an institution dedicated to exhibition projects concerning 19th & 20th Century International Art.
At the Appleton Museum, Florida, he organised an ambitious yearlong series of exhibitions under the banner: "Art of Our Century", as well as an exhibition exploring the engaged relationship of French Master, Henri Matisse to the art and images of the Inuit: "Matisse and the Inuit Face". He contributed an essay for the Tate Gallery, St. Ives, exhibition catalogue regarding artist Eric Cameron, and essays for exhibition catalogues in 2001: Michael Smith; ABCs of Pop (for Florida State University and Appleton Museum). Professor Spalding organized "Sea of Forking Paths: International Contemporary Art" for the Museum of Arts and Sciences, Daytona Beach, was juror for the Sarasota Arts Council Awards, the Gasparilla Arts Festival, as well as Halifax Art Festival, Ormond Beach, Fine Arts For Ocala and the Manitoba Society of Artists. He was guest curator to select the Alabama-Georgia Biennial, for the Albany Museum of Art, Georgia.
Spalding conducted a 2000 -2001 lecture tour of Canada and the USA on the topic of American artist, Rockwell Kent. Upon joining the Appleton Museum of Art, its membership grew from 700 to 2800; annual visitation from 17,800 to 130,000 and earned revenues from $90,000 to $1.1 Million. Six thousand works of art were added by gift in three years.
At AGNS, Spalding was dedicated to the purpose of bringing the art of the world to Nova Scotia and the art of Nova Scotia to the world. Together with the donations from friends of the arts, the AGNS added considerable strength and breadth to its Canadian historical and contemporary collection. Its collection grew by 50% primarily via gift in just over three years from 9000 works to over 13,000 works. AGNS has attracted for display a broad range of work: from Post-Impressionism from the National Gallery of Canada, "Art of the Ancient Mediterranean World" from Museum of Fine Arts Boston, American video installation artist, Gary Hill, painters April Gornik and Eric Fischl, Richard Serra, multi-media artist David Askevold, Rockwell Kent as well as "Rodin: A Magnificent Obsession" from the Cantor Foundation, Los Angeles.
During his term with Glenbow, Spalding enriched the collections by significant purchases and extensive gifts. He curated an international exhibition “Through the Looking Glass” and was responsible for bringing to Calgary on long-term public display Dennis Oppenheim’s magnificent sculpture, “The Device to Root Out Evil”
Spalding has written numerous exhibition catalogue essays among them: Tim Zuck 1976/2002; Coasts the Sea and Canadian Art 1977; Max Ernst 1979; Silversmithing in Canadian History 1979; John Will 1979, 1995, and 2001, Aspects of Canadian Painting in the Seventies 1980. He was the curator of Canada's visual arts exhibition for Expo 93, Korea and author of its catalogue: Reflecting Paradise. ALSO: Painting the Bay: Recent Works by John Hartman 1993, Roloff Beny: A Visual Journey 1994; Revealing/Concealing Voices from the Canadian Foothills 1997; Soup to Nuts: Pop Art and its Legacy 1998, and "Atlantica: the View from Away" for Dalhousie University Art Gallery.
He has contributed essays for books accompanying retrospective exhibitions: Eric Cameron (for the Tate, St. Ives), Takao Tanabe (for Vancouver Art Gallery), Christopher Pratt (for the National Gallery of Canada) and Jean Paul Riopelle for MMFA (2002 and touring in 2006 to The Hermitage and Marseille Museum of Art.). Recently he wrote about Will Gorlitz for the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery national touring exhibit.
He is currently at work on numerous solo artist publication projects including mid-fities abstractionist, Oscar Cahen, as well as Houston-based artist, Christian Eckart. He is collaborating with Garry Kennedy and Kaspar Koenig upon an international touring exhibition and accompanying book to be published by M.I.T. Press concerning conceptualism at NSCAD.
In 1992, Spalding was honoured to receive the Alberta College of Art Board of Governors Award of Excellence. He accompanied The Governor General of Canada upon Canada's State Visit 2002 to Finland and Iceland.. He served on the jury to select the 2005 Governor General's Awards for Visual and Media Arts. Spalding was elected President of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (2007 till present). In 2007 he was awarded the Order of Canada.
He lives and works in Calgary, Alberta and Salmon River Bridge, Nova Scotia, Canada.
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