Robert Flack

Robert Flack (1957-1993, Canada) studied at York University. After graduating in 1980 he worked at Art Metropole, as well as assisting on several General Idea-related projects such as FILE Megazine. Flack worked in painting, mixed media, and specifically photography. During the 80’s he exhibited extensively in Canada at artist-run centres and public galleries, the Cold City Gallery artist collective, and the S.L. Simpson Gallery. By 1990 he was exhibiting internationally, in Paris, Barcelona and Amsterdam, and was represented in New York City at Feature Inc. and in Toronto at Garnet Press. Often characterized by his use of psychedelic colors, spiritual subject matter, and relationships with the body, Flack was heavily influenced by his own quickening mortality, having been diagnosed with HIV in the early 1990s. His work was included in the touring group exhibition Corpus Part II curated by Bruce Grenville in 1993 for the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon. A survey exhibition was curated by Nancy Campbell at the MacDonald Stewart Art Centre in 1993. In 1997 Philip Monk included Flack’s work in Rococco Tattoo: The Ornamental Impulse in Toronto Art at the Power Plant. In 1999 the National Gallery of Canada celebrated Flack’s work to commemorate A Day Without Art, December 1999 – January 2000.