John McEwen


John McEwen was born in Toronto in 1945. He currently lives and works in Hillsdale, Ontario. Co-founder and former director of A Space, John McEwen was honoured in 2007 with a Doctorate of Fine Arts from the University of Lethbridge, Alberta. He is recognised both internationally and across Canada for his many site-specific installations and public commissions. In 2019 he was a recipient of the Order of Canada.
 
McEwen is best known for his inventive approach to ‘sculpting’ animals as vehicles of the imagination. 
Whether flame cut from  a massive steel slab or composed by a skin of steel stars, these sculpted 
animals, quite often dogs or wolves, outline the critical ways we experience and think about animals.
 
Of the two main approaches by animal, the solid steel life size silhouette indicates the divide between us and them – but as we move & with a change in perspective – the ‘animal’ quickens and works within  our imagination. However when language threatens to conscript the ‘free’ animal and to put that animal to use  McEwen often introduces other vehicles such as the  canoe, boat or airplane to produce a mitigating effect. These vehicles and their given perspectives, might then either replace or operate along side the animal.
In his second, more recent approach, animals made with a skin of small laser cut stars demonstrate a more interactive cosmos, one with a more free range and less guarded dynamic. Within these three dimensional bodies, difference becomes reminder that all life exists – like folds in a garment, alike through embodiment but different through life style.

Available Artworks

Crow Plow

Crow Plow

John McEwen
Metal sculpture, 2020
Over Portrait

Over Portrait

John McEwen
Metal sculpture, 2020
Cast Iron Bell
Cast Iron Bell

artwork detail

Cast Iron Bell

Cast Iron Bell

John McEwen
Metal sculpture, 2020
Wild Rose

Wild Rose

John McEwen
Metal sculpture, 2020
Prince of Wales

Prince of Wales

John McEwen
Metal sculpture, 2020
Lion

Lion

John McEwen
Metal sculpture, 2020
Deer with Crumpled Horn

Deer with Crumpled Horn

John McEwen
Metal sculpture, 2020
Stepping Wolf

Stepping Wolf

John McEwen
Metal sculpture, 2020
Heart Breaks 2017
Heart Breaks, 2017

Heart Breaks, 2017

John McEwen
corten steel 88” x 106” x 24”
The Spillway Jug 2017
The Spillway Jug, 2017

The Spillway Jug, 2017

John McEwen
corten steel 119” x 87.5” x 48”
Skull 2015
Skull, 2015

Skull, 2015

John McEwen
corten steel 73” x 24” x 42”
Jack, Deer, Direction 2016
Jack, Deer, Direction, 2016

Jack, Deer, Direction, 2016

John McEwen
flame cut steel 44” x 15” x 15”
Eternity 2005
Eternity, 2005

Eternity, 2005

John McEwen
bronze dog, bronze saw blade, bronze & steel stars dimensions variable
The Bent Tree Jug, 2019
The Bent Tree Jug, 2019

artwork detail

The Bent Tree Jug, 2019

John McEwen
laser cut steel, steel 69" x 37.5" x 43.25"