Garry Kennedy

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Garry Neill Kennedy studied at the Ontario College of Art, the University at Buffalo and the University of Ohio. In 1967, at the age of 32, he was appointed president of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, the youngest ever to serve in that position. He headed the college for 23 years, leaving the post after a protracted fight with the new faculty union. In addition to teaching at NSCAD, he has taught and lectured throughout Canada, the U.S. and Europe. He has exhibited extensively, including a major show at the National Gallery of Canada in 2000. He was awarded the Portia White Prize by the Arts Council of Nova Scotia in 2000, and in 2004 the Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts. In selecting Kennedy for the Governor General's Awards, an independent peer jury called him "one of the most distinguished figures in Canadian art. Not only has he produced a body of conceptual painting that is recognized internationally, he was also instrumental in establishing an international reputation for the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, of which he was the innovative head for 23 years. Kennedy is an artist and philosopher at the same time, in that he critiques, or asks questions about, the nature, materials, processes and conventions of art. His art is laced with humour, irony and irreverence."