Portrait of Things

About Portrait of Things

He is considered one of Edmonton’s finest minimalist artists—David Cantine continues to create striking paintings focused on minimal form and colour. Known for his decade’s long experimentation with painting essentially the same image…four discs in a variety of colours on plexiglass, this intimate portrait explores two vertical rectangles rendered in subtle colours—butter yellow, sienna and peach on a gold backdrop.
Cantine is considered to be a ‘post-minimalist—an expression attributed to the American art critic--Robert Pincus-Witten in the early seventies to describe art that embraced the use of modest materials and a formal pure line. This work is an exploration of the idea of the traditional still life rendered in curated shapes and colours.

“Colour has a way of finding its own space. It just does that.” David Cantine

He was born in Jackson, Michigan in 1939 and studied at the University of Iowa where he acquired both his BFA and his MA. Following graduation, he moved to Alberta and continued to paint but he also worked as a professor in the Department of Art and Design at the University of Alberta for more than thirty years. Cantine’s work has been exhibited at the Art Gallery of Alberta, FAB Gallery, the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art among others and is represented in numerous private and public collections.