Michael Bidner
Michael Bidner (1944-1989) was a Canadian graphic artist and painter noted for his use of xerox and microfilm technology. He was from London, Ontario.
Career
[edit]Bidner was an early proponent of the zine movement and was deeply involved with the gay community and punk scene in Canada.[1] Around 1970, Bidner began exhibiting and working with printed graphics, ultimately incorporating photographs, slides, video, photocopies and even faxes in his work.[2] In 1972, he founded Cloud Productions, a mail art style artist publication project in Vancouver, B.C.[3] He then briefly taught art at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario in 1973.[3] Around that time, he is said to have gotten the first colour Xerox machine in Canada, which he used to host a printing party at the McIntosh Gallery at Western University.[4] In 1981, he began focusing on artistamps (a term he coined) and miniature art, ultimately organizing his first artistamp exhibition, entitled “Artistampex," in 1984.[2]
Bidner was cataloguing his large collection of mail artistamps when he died of AIDS in 1989.[1] The project was completed posthumously as a tribute.
References
[edit]- ^ a b Dickson, Jason; Baynes, Tom (2019). Michael Bidner: Raw. ISBN 9780771431210.
- ^ a b Artpool. "Michael T. BIDNER (1944 - 1989) - Artistamp Museum of Artpool". www.artpool.hu. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
- ^ a b Finding aid for the Michael Bidner fonds at the National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives. https://www.gallery.ca/library/ngc060.html
- ^ CBC News. "Q&A: Remembering a unique London artist". CBC. Retrieved May 4, 2021.
External links
[edit]- Michael Bidner fonds at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
