Greg Curnoe

Who was Greg Curnoe?

Greg Curnoe was a Canadian painter known for his concentration on subjects associated with regionalism and London, Ontario. Curnoe is part of the Canadian art movement labeled London Regionalism. Curnoe attended H. B. Beal Secondary School and the Doon School of Art before attending the Ontario College of Art, where he failed his final year.

Returning to London, Ontario, Curnoe began to work in the studio. He found meaning in popular culture and his own cultural roots that addressed the disillusion he felt with established culture after leaving art school. He founded Region magazine in 1961 and Region Gallery in 1962. He co-founded the Canadian noise band the Nihilist Spasm Band in 1965.

Curnoe co-founded the Forest City Gallery, an artist-run centre in 1973.He co-founded Canadian Artists’ Representation with Jack Chambers in 1968, the national voice of Canada's professional visual artists.

He represented Canada at the Venice Biennale in 1976 and was the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 1981, which subsequently toured across Canada.

Curnoe was an avid cyclist, and his handbuilt Mariposa bicycles were a frequent subject of his work. While on a club ride with the London Centennial Wheelers, Curnoe was killed by a distracted driver in a pickup truck that plowed into the group of 12 cyclists on Highway 2, just outside Delaware, Ontario. He was killed and six others were seriously injured and taken to hospital. The driver was charged with four-counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm, and one-count of dangerous driving causing death. The driver was eventually acquitted of all charges on 13 January 1994.