User:65.95.163.184/sandbox

Robert Fones

Robert Fones is a visual artist, writer and curator who lives and works in Toronto, Ontario. Fones was born in London, Ontario in 1949 and was part of the active art scene that included Greg Curnoe, Jack Chambers, Keewatin Dewdney and James Reaney. He was a founding member of Forest City Gallery in 1973. In 1976 Fones moved to Toronto where he has lived since.

As a teenager in London, Fones produced a number of one-of-a-kind books of cartoons, stories and poems that he typed, drew and bound himself. He has always maintained this interest in artist's books, publishing artist's books with The Coach House Press, Art Metropole and Oakville Galleries. Fones worked with his father, Harry Fones as a carpenter during his teen years and early twenties. His mother made quilts and encouraged his early interest in writing and drawing. She enrolled him in the London, Artists Workshop in 1962. Selwyn Dewdney was the director at the time. In 1967 Fones met Greg Curnoe at a series of Saturday morning art classes that he attended at H.B. Beal Secondary School in London. In September 1967 Fones enrolled in the Special Art Course at H.B.Beal. In March, 1968 Fones assisted Greg Curnoe with the installation of Curnoe's mural at Dorval Airport in Montreal.

Within the London, Ontario art scene, Fones developed an appreciation for a multidisciplinary approach to making art, as well as an interest in regional history, geography and cultural and industrial production. Fones was also influenced by Selwyn Dewdney's books on Rock Art and Ojibway birchbark scrolls. In the mid-1970s he explored many aboriginal village sites, burial sites and production sites in Southern Ontario. This experience led to his use of an archaeological methodology in his two works, Butter Models, and House Viruses, both exhibited at Carmen Lamanna Gallery in 1979.