Charles Malinsky

Charles Malinsky is an internationally acclaimed Canadian painter. His art has been featured in many international journals and publications. Malinsky’s paintings and drawings have been featured in numerous solo and major group exhibitions, and is represented in many prestigious private, museum, and corporate collections. These include: Fundació de les Arts i els Artistes, Barcelona, Spain (5 works); the Collection of the Victoria College of Art, Victoria British Colombia, Canada; Nickel Arts Museum, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Michael Williams Collection, University of Victoria, Victoria , British Colombia, Canada (18 works); the Permanent Collection of the Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria, British Colombia, Canada; the Seymour Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. His work can also be found in the private collections of notable celebrities such as Dr. Dre, Phil Everly, Fred Durst, Vin Diesel, David Caruso and others. The extraordinary achievements of his career have made him of one of the most dynamic figurative painters working in the 21st century.



Malinsky was born in 1956 in Yorkton, Saskatchewan and grew up in the isolation of the vast Canadian prairies. He earned his diploma from the Alberta College of Art and Design 1978. He spent his early professional years in Calgary as a graphic designer in educational television, winning a number of international awards for the small, obscure station. Malinsky states, "The sheer good fortune -- to be taken under the wing of a small group of the most talented and creative individuals I have encountered in my entire life, including Greg and Gary Crossley, Brian Huffman, John Blackie and Peter Ivens -- was a revelatory experiences for me." In 1984, he took a posting at the Alberta College of Art and Design, where he taught drawing. It was at this point that Malinsky changed streams, devoting himself to the creation of pure art. It took seven years of dedicated studio work for him to find his voice as an artist. His first pubic exhibition at the Fran Willis Gallery in Victoria, British Colombia created a media sensation, and garnered wide public attention.

Malinsky’s richly complex, layered, visual narratives are emotionally clear and accessible. His suburban prairie upbringing provided him with a backdrop of physical and social isolation, and his early work became focused on the rift between what was experienced and what could not be said. Malinsky’s first exhibitions took place in the early 90s, during a time when figurative painting was not considered a legitimate, cutting edge genre for art. His approach flew in the face of the self-created, intellectual elitism of the deconstructivist movement of the time. He first received critical attention for depicting the dark, disturbing undercurrents of mainstream life, eloquently communicated to a popular reception through his figurative approach.


 
After living for ten years in Madrid, Spain, Charles Malinsky has recently returned to Canada.