Guest Speakers

MAURICE SPIRA

Panelist
Painter ~ Roberts Creek, British Columbia, Canada
www.mauricespira.com

Maurice Spira was born in Kent, England in 1944. After four years of quite traditional studies at a provincial art school, and a stint in advertising in London, he left in 1966 for the New World.

In the ensuing years (1966-74), the psycho-actively enriched counter-cultural milieu in Montreal transformed him utterly. Then, after travelling and painting in Mexico during the mid-seventies, he settled in Vancouver. He explored painting and block printing and it became established as his preferred mediums.

By the early ‘80s, requiring a breath of fresh air, Spira vacated the metropolis for a somewhat more rural existence on the Sunshine Coast. More than two decades later, he continues to paint and print in his Roberts Creek studio, while still finding time to grow excellent red cabbages and spuds.

“A persistent political commentary informs the content and production of Spira's body of paintings print-work. The oppression of authoritative regimes, the sexual repression of religion and the proliferation of increasingly Kafkaesque bureaucracies are central to his anarchistic brand of surrealism and political protest.” – Hamilton Artists Inc.