Roland Brener

Brener, Roland

Roland Brener, sculptor (b at Johannesburg, South Africa 22 February 1942). He completed his artistic training at St Martin's School of Art, London, England, in 1965 where he studied with Anthony Caro. Brener enjoyed a number of teaching positions in England and the United States before being named Associate Professor at the University of Victoria in 1974. He retired from the faculty there in 1997 and continues his full-time studio practice in Victoria.

Brener's work has grown from the formalist investigations of minimalist art practice as is evidenced in the work of those following the new territories explored by Anthony Caro, David Smith and Donald Judd. By the early 1980s, Brener had worked out a distinctive sculptural method involving the use of "off the shelf" materials and a rejection of the notion of a distinction between high and pop culture. For the past decade his work has evolved through kinetic sculptures employing a strong element of robotics and computers.

Brener has exhibited widely throughout his career to date and amongst his distinguished accomplishments are his inclusion in major exhibitions at the Cleveland Contemporary Art Center, 49th Parallel Gallery, New York and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. He represented Canada at the Biennal Internacional de São Paulo in 1987 and the Venice Biennale in 1988. His work is found in most of the major public collections of Canada including those of the NATIONAL GALLERY, the VANCOUVER ART GALLERY, the Canada Council Art Bank, the MUSEÉ D'ART CONTEMPORAIN DE MONTRÉAL and the ART GALLERY OF GREATER VICTORIA.