Roland Brener

Brener was born Roland Albert Brener{{cite web|title=Roland Albert Brener|url=http://art.state.gov/artistdetail.aspx?id=140208|website=US Department of State: Art in Embassies|publisher=United States Government|accessdate=9 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160602104215/http://art.state.gov/ArtistDetail.aspx?id=140208|archive-date=2 June 2016|url-status=live}} on February 22, 1942, in Johannesburg.{{cite web|title=Roland Brener In Memoriam|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/timescolonist/obituary.aspx?n=roland-brener&pid=149556038|website=Times-Colonist|accessdate=9 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160629155011/http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/timescolonist/obituary.aspx?n=roland-brener&pid=149556038|archive-date=29 June 2016|url-status=live}}{{cite book|author=Roger Matuz|title=Contemporary Canadian artists|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CdBHAQAAIAAJ|year=1997|publisher=Gale Canada|isbn=978-1-896413-46-4}} He studied art at Saint Martin's School of Art under Anthony Caro.{{cite book|author=David Moos|title=The Shape of Colour: Excursions in Colour Field Art, 1950-2005|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c45PAAAAMAAJ|year=2005|publisher=Art Gallery of Ontario|isbn=978-1-894243-45-2|access-date=2019-11-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170215195534/https://books.google.com/books?id=C45pAAAAMAAJ|archive-date=2017-02-15|url-status=live}} He completed his academic training in 1965, and in 1967, Brener was one of the founders of the Stockwell Depot, a studio and exhibition space occupying part of a disused brewery in south London.{{cite book|author=Tate Gallery|title=The Tate Gallery|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b48rAAAAIAAJ|year=1970|publisher=Tate Gallery Publications Department}}{{cite book|author1=Mary Jane Jacob|author2=Terry Ann R. Neff|author3=Graham William John Beal|title=A quiet revolution, British sculpture since 1965|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XlXqAAAAMAAJ|date=January 1987|publisher=Thames and Hudson}} Brener taught at Saint Martin's, at the University of California, Santa Barbara{{cite book|author1=Robert Youds|author2=Art Gallery of Greater Victoria|title=Mowry Baden and Roland Brener: thirty years in Victoria|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ubFNAAAAYAAJ|year=2006|publisher=Art Gallery of Greater Victoria}} and at the University of Iowa{{cite book|author1=Susan Landauer|author2=William H. Gerdts|author3=Patricia Trenton|title=The not-so-still life: a century of California painting and sculpture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jdlPAAAAMAAJ|year=2003|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-23937-1}} before being appointed Associate Professor at the University of Victoria in 1974. He retired from teaching in 1997 and continued to live and work in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada until his death in 2006.{{cite web|title=Roland Brener 1942 - 2006|url=https://www.gallery.ca/en/see/collections/artist.php?iartistid=707|website=National Gallery of Canada|accessdate=9 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160630090725/https://www.gallery.ca/en/see/collections/artist.php?iartistid=707|archive-date=30 June 2016|url-status=live}}

Brener's early practice grew from the formalist innovations of his contemporaries at Saint Martin's. During the 1980s, his work developed a more playful individuality as he began to incorporate consumer items, most often toys, and experiment with kinetic sculpture driven by electronic motors or computers. In his later work, he began to use the computer as a design tool to produce fantastical distortions of everyday images and objects, which were then fabricated in wood or synthetic materials.

Brener represented Canada at the São Paulo Art Biennial in 1987 and the Venice Biennale in 1988.{{cite book|author=John Knechtel|title=Open City|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G25QAAAAMAAJ|year=1998|publisher=House of Anansi Press|isbn=978-0-88784-621-2}}{{cite book|title=Contemporanea|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vo00AQAAIAAJ|year=1989|publisher=Contemporanea, Limited}}{{cite book|author=R.R. Bowker Company. Database Publishing Group|title=Who's Who in American Art: 1993-94|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=swgl-BUcyR8C|year=1993|publisher=R.R. Bowker|isbn=978-0-8352-3274-6}} In 2000, Brener exhibited Swinger at Deitch Projects in New York,{{cite web|title=Roland Brener Swinger|url=http://deitch.com/archive/swinger|website=Deitch Projects|accessdate=9 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160803111847/http://deitch.com/archive/swinger|archive-date=3 August 2016|url-status=live}} and in 2006 he was in Part Two, a duo exhibition with Mowry Baden at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.

His public sculpture Radioville, a re-working of his earlier sculptures Endsville and Capital Z,{{cite web|title=Capital Z|url=https://www.gallery.ca/en/see/collections/artwork.php?mkey=43441|website=National Gallery of Canada|accessdate=9 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160603054530/http://www.gallery.ca/en/see/collections/artwork.php?mkey=43441|archive-date=3 June 2016|url-status=live}} was installed in 2005 on the site of an old CBC radio-antenna tower in central Toronto, Ontario.{{cite web|last1=Paez|first1=Beatrice|title=This Public Art Honours the Site of Canada’s First Radio Transmission|url=http://torontoist.com/2016/05/this-public-art-honours-the-site-of-canadas-first-radio-tramission/|website=Torontoist|accessdate=9 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160525153707/http://torontoist.com/2016/05/this-public-art-honours-the-site-of-canadas-first-radio-tramission/|archive-date=25 May 2016|url-status=live}}{{cite book|author=John Warkentin|title=Creating Memory: A Guide to Outdoor Public Sculpture in Toronto|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gCUyR1svtb8C&pg=PA335|year=2010|publisher=Becker Associates|isbn=978-0-919387-60-7|pages=335–}}

Brener's work is represented in most of the major public collections in Canada, including Toronto's Art Gallery of Ontario and the National Gallery of Canada.

• Royal Canadian Academy of Arts{{cite web|title=Members since 1880|url=http://www.rca-arc.ca/en/about_members/since1880.asp|publisher=Royal Canadian Academy of Arts|accessdate=11 September 2013|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110526215339/http://www.rca-arc.ca/en/about_members/since1880.asp|archivedate=26 May 2011}}

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.ccca.ca/artists/artist_info.html?languagePref=en&link_id=487 CCCA Artist Profile for Roland Brener]
• [http://cybermuse.gallery.ca/cybermuse/search/artist_e.jsp?iartistid=707 Roland Brener at the National Gallery of Canada]

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Category:1942 births

Category:2006 deaths

Category:20th-century Canadian sculptors

Category:Canadian male sculptors

Category:20th-century Canadian male artists

Category:21st-century South African sculptors

Category:Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts

Category:Alumni of Saint Martin's School of Art