Considered one of Canada’s leading studio potters, Ed Drahanchuk is a ceramicist, metal artist, muralist, painter and printmaker who worked actively in ceramics in the 1960s and 70s. Drahanchuk’s work is an honest expression of the natural world, using glazes only as accents to his designs and only where function demands it. He works in stoneware and experiments with relief decoration and wax emulsion. These techniques imbue his work with a distinctive surface energy and muscularity while also providing fine, sensitive lines.
Drahanchuk graduated from the Alberta College of Art in Calgary (now Alberta University of the Arts) in 1963. That same year, he founded Design Associates with wife Ethel Drahanchuk and architectural sculptor Bob Oldrich. The studio specialized in independent studio design for corporate and architectural settings. In 1968, the Drahanchuks moved to Bragg Creek and established Drahanchuk Studios. They moved to British Columbia in 1975.
Drahanchuk was awarded the Canadian Design Merit Citation, Craft Award by the National Design Council in 1974.Notable public commissions include: Rhythm One, 1970, University of Calgary; Alberta Foothills, 1970, Royal Bank of Canada; Fossil Theme, 1973, University of Calgary; United News Building, Calgary; Mercantile Bank of Canada, Edmonton.
For all you deep art divers out there.
Alberta University of the Arts Instagram
Article on Concrete Murals by Bob Oldrich
More information on Drahanchuk’s brother Walter Drohan
Article on Alberta Foothills Morning, a 1960s Ed Drahanchuk mural
The Canadian Art Preservation Foundation posts short biographies and information on artists and artwork from its collection in a not-so-subtle attempt to capture your attention and interest in our mission, but we also just want to keep this artwork in view. We are excited about the art we collect and want to share it with you. CAPF is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the artwork of Canada’s superstar artists for future generations to examine, study and exhibit – the ones you know and the ones you might not know so well. We accept artwork, journals, notes, letters, exhibition catalogues and anything else that might comprise a visual and/or intellectual “portrait” (ahem, please pardon the pun) of a particular artist.
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