Prolific B.C. artist Gathie Falk was enthralled by beauty and strangeness

Gathie Falk, a prolific British Columbia artist celebrated for colourful sculptures, paintings and performance work, died Dec. 22 at age 97 of a lung infection; many of her pieces are held in major Canadian collections.

Gathie Falk was a Vancouver-based artist whose work explored everyday objects with a sustained sense of wonder. She worked across painting, sculpture, ceramics and performance art and produced notable series such as vividly coloured ceramic fruit piles and papier-mâché dresses. Her career grew from modest origins to national recognition and several major retrospectives. She died at her East Vancouver home on Dec. 22 at age 97 from a lung infection. Key facts: - Born Jan. 31, 1928, in Alexander, Manitoba, to German-speaking Mennonite parents and raised amid early economic hardship. - Died Dec. 22 in East Vancouver at age 97; reported cause was a lung infection. - Best known for handcrafted sculptural works: ceramic pyramids of fruit, papier-mâché dresses, and sculptural installations that highlighted common objects. - Studied art while working as a teacher and in factories; first solo show in 1965 and expanded into ceramics and performance in the late 1960s and 1970s. - Personal life included a marriage in the 1970s that ended in divorce; her former husband was later convicted of sexual crimes in the 1970s, reported as convictions in 1976–77. - Recognition included three career retrospectives (notably 1985 at the Vancouver Art Gallery and 2022 at the McMichael), the Audain Prize (2013), the Governor-General's Award in Visual and Media Arts (2003), the Order of Canada (1997) and the Order of British Columbia (2002). Summary: Her work turned ordinary subjects into sustained, handcrafted investigations and is held by major public and private collections in Canada and abroad. Over a long career she received growing institutional recognition and several national honours. Undetermined at this time.