Things Plus Tops

About Things Plus Tops

This elegant minimalist work by David Cantine re-imagines the traditional still life. Two stacked rectangles are rendered in gold, sienna, steel blue and black on a camel-coloured background. The Edmonton-based artist has spent decades exploring this ‘post-minimalist’ style--an expression attributed to the American art critic--Robert Pincus-Witten in the early seventies. ‘Post minimalism’ describes art that embraces the use of modest materials and a formal pure line. Cantine carefully curates both the shapes and colours of each painting.

“Colour has a way of finding its own space. It just does that.” David Cantine

He was born in Jackson, Michigan in 1939 and studied at the University of Iowa where he acquired both his BFA and his MA. Following graduation, he moved to Alberta and continued to paint but he also worked as a professor in the Department of Art and Design at the University of Alberta for more than thirty years. Cantine’s work has been exhibited at the Art Gallery of Alberta, FAB Gallery, the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art among others and is represented in numerous private and public collections.