Enn Erisalu | Floating Forms

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Enn Erisalu, "Untitled Two Forms (Brown and Green)”

oil on canvas board, 11 x 12 inches. Courtesy of the Gallery.

Canadian modernist painter Enn Erisalu (1943–2005) was born in Estonia and immigrated to Canada in 1951. He studied art in Florence, London, the University of Oregon and at the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, where he earned a BFA and BPA. In 1969, he settled in Vancouver and spent the early parts of his career creating abstractions such as “Three Forms” which have gained critical acclaim. Around the 1990’s, Erisalu’s work took a conceptualist turn when he began working with text, numbers, and symbols.

Erisalu’s work and legacy as an artist been praised by several recognized art critics and historians including Robin Laurence, Chris Brayshaw, and Patrik Andersson. They cite his aesthetic influences in Cubism, Constructivism, Minimalism and Conceptualism among others. There is a collective regret in the early death of the gifted painter (at age 61), whose work was often overlooked at the time of its making in Vancouver. Erisalu’s work has been well exhibited and collected in Toronto, Seattle, New York and in Europe, and is held in the public collection at the Vancouver Art Gallery.