Robert Flack

Robert Flack (b. 1957 Guelph, Canada; d. 1993 Toronto, Canada) was an artist based in Toronto. He received his BFA from York University in 1980 and attended Sheridan College in 1984. Flack’s work was deeply concerned with internalized realms of psychic energy, the chakras, and the etheric body, which was influenced by the experience of his HIV seroconversion in 1988. In 1980, Flack began working at Art Metropole. Soon after, he began to exhibit at Toronto galleries and in 1982 was included in a two-person exhibition with Chrysanne Stathacos at Chromazone, a space co-founded by Andy Fabo. Flack was soon invited to exhibited nationally and internationally at spaces such as Das Institut Unzeit, West Berlin; Artist Space, Sydney; Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford; Rutgers University Museum, New Jersey; and W139, Amsterdam. Notably, his exhibition at the Wadsworth Atheneum was an iteration of Group Material’s iconic AIDS Timeline exhibitions. He also lived and worked in New York, showing regularly in solo and group exhibitions with Hudson at Feature, Inc.

Flack’s work has also been posthumously included in noteworthy exhibitions including Time is Thirsty, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna; Tributes and Tributaries 1971-1989, Art Gallery of Ontario; Par Amour/Paramour, curated by Jonathan Shaughnessy, National Gallery of Canada at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art; Standing Ground (with Will Munro), Paul Petro Contemporary Art; The Temptation of AA Bronson, Witte de With; and The Cold City Years, The Power Plant. Flack’s estate is represented by Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto.