Graff, Les (RCA)

Les Graff (RCA) was born in Camrose, Alberta in 1936.  He is a painter, who significantly shaped the visual arts in Alberta as an artist, administrator, curator, and educator.  He has put an enduring stamp on Canada’s art history with his distinct approach to abstraction that is inspired by the western Canadian landscape and deeply rooted in his experience.

Graff’s professional body of work spans over 60 years and has yielded over 5,500 works. Until recently, his process involved plein air sketches, using the landscape for inspiration.

At 88 years of age, Graff remains a prolific painter, producing mature, complex work that is richly engaging.  In recent years, Graff no longer feels the need for a structured approach to making art.  His tacit knowledge and memory serve as inspiration in the studio and his latest work seems like an effortless culmination of ideas he has explored in the past with a new-found freedom to push those boundaries aside.

His work has been shown in public and private exhibitions, 32 solo and more than 43 group exhibitions in Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, China, and Japan.

In 2016, Les Graff inducted into the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA).   He has also been awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, Alberta Centennial Medal, and several honours from the Alberta College of Art & Design.  His achievements have been documented in several important publications and in the documentary film, “Dreamers and Doers”. Canadian art, and secured a place for him in Canada’s art history.