Gerald Ferguson

Artist Bio: Gerald Ferguson 1937-2009

Gerry Ferguson was one of the most important conceptual artists working in Canada. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and came to the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 1968 from Ohio State University. Garry Kennedy, the new president of NSCAD was assembling a faculty that would turn NSCAD into one of the most influential art colleges of the 1970s and 1980s. Gerry was a part of that faculty.

Gerry was a pioneer in conceptual art, and an influential teacher at NSCAD for nearly forty years. He exerted a tremendous influence over several generations of young artists. In 1995, Gerry was awarded the prestigious Molson Prize, (worth $50,000.00), by the Canada Council. Gerry’s best-known work is the One Million Pennies that was first exhibited at the Glenbow Gallery in Calgary. He donated it to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia shortly before he died.

In addition to his studio work and teaching, Gerry was a perceptive collector or art and assembled significant collections of folk art; as well as the art of Nova Scotian painters from the first half of the twentieth century.