Tom Benner, the Canadian artist best known for his sculptures, died last week at age 72. A resident of London, Ontario, Benner was associated with an art movement known as London Regionalism in the 1960s and ’70s.
Benner explored themes that included the environment, nature and history in his large sculptures, paintings, and art installations. His work was exhibited in Canada and the United States.
His earliest work featured depictions of natural forms, including leaves and fiberglass sculptures of rocks and boulders. His 1983 installation, Hanging Fin (Whale), consisted of a whale constructed from metal and hardware suspended from the ceiling. It became his signature work during a period where he created many memorial sculptures of extinct and endangered wildlife. Benner felt a responsibility to work with images of animals because he believed there was inadequate representation of animal symbolism in Western culture.
A 1986 exhibition, A Response, featured large sculptures and linocut prints depicting extinct and endangered animals. Benner’s installation, White Rhino, is a life-size aluminum sculpture of a rhinoceros that now graces the front lawn of Museum London. His Tribute to Nahneebahweequay (1988) and Tecumseh (1993) honor the identity of Aboriginal Canadians. The following year, he created a 600-pound copper Bison sculpture, initially exhibited in Toronto’s Union Station.
Benner’s other works included Cruising the Margins, consisting of three full-size classic cars, and Moon, a 13-foot-high sphere. Museum London held a retrospective exhibition of his work, Call of the Wild in 2010, which ultimately traveled to galleries across Canada. His last works were a life-sized Polar Bear and a large Sandhill Crane.
Describing his work, he said, “Each piece is strongly rooted within a tradition of narrative and storytelling, but is also equally concerned with materiality. Some stories are grounded with historical research, scouring bookstores and libraries for information, some stories come in the form of dreams, memories. My sculpture is not solely about the individual piece, but also about the process, the materials, and the space it occupies.”
Cassandra Getty, Curator of Art at Museum London, stressed how important Tom Benner was to both the culture of the London region and Canadian art. “He asserted his own unique voice and way of working that was immediately recognizable,” she said. “He was very prescient in his work about idea of how humankind was threatening the environment.”
