Conrad Furey, 1954-2008

Conrad Furey is best known for his naive scenes
of Newfoundland life but his themes stretch more widely

Biography
Conrad Furey was born in 1954 in Baie Verte, on Newfoundland’s northeast coast. He was the seventh of 11 children and his father worked as a fisherman, logger, trucker, and miner.

Much of Conrad Furey’s future artwork was based on the characters and scenes from his childhood, including everyday activities such as fishing, boating, dancing and mummering. (Read our blog post on how FineArtCollector.ca “repatriated” Conrad Furey paintngs).

Conrad Furey left home at 18 years old to study commercial art at the College of Trades and Technology in St. John’s. After one year, he decided to move to Ontario in 1974 to attend the creative arts program at Sheridan College. Conrad Furey again departed after a year of study, this time to settle in Hamilton, where he worked as curator of the Canvas Gallery and as a set designer for television.

Conrad Furey became involved with the Hamilton arts community and went on to receive several awards for that involvement, including one from the city itself.

Influenced by Picasso

Conrad Furey considered himself a self-taught artist and said that he rebelled against what little formal training he had. He identified Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall as early influences, and the connection can be seen in his simple, rounded figures of people.

“I work in a very simplistic sense,” Conrad Furey said in a 1985 video interview. “I guess I like to get down to the basics of what I’m doing. I don’t like too much detail.”

Conrad Furey also described his figures as having a “sculptural quality.”

Although best known as a painter, painting primarily colourful acrylics on canvas or plywood structures, Conrad Furey also experimented with bronze, resin, and stone sculpture, and also designed a set of 13 stained-glass windows.

Commissions for Murals

Conrad Furey’s first exhibition was at the Grimsby Art Gallery in 1997, and he had numerous shows in Ontario and Newfoundland from then until his final show back in Grimsby in 2008.

Conrad Furey was commissioned to create many murals and public paintings across Canada, including Stations of the Cross for St. Pius X Church in Baie Verte in 1976.

Many of his murals and larger works are prominently displayed in the Hamilton area. Among these are murals at McMaster University Medical Centre, McMaster University Health Sciences Library, the Juravinski Cancer Centre (Riding the Dragon, 2006) , Hamilton Public Library, St. Joseph’s Hospital, along with both indoor and outdoor ones done for corporations.

Conrad Furey’s work is held by many public galleries, including The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery’s Permanent Collection in St. John’s, Memorial University Art Gallery, and the Art Gallery of Hamilton. His artworks are also widely held in corporate and private collections.

Conrad Furey died of colon cancer in 2008 at the age of 53.

The Conrad Furey estate has donated his artworks to health-care facilities and charitable causes since his death.

Sources:
Art Gallery of Newfoundland and Labrador Website.
The nor’wester newspaper article, Springdale, NL, Oct. 2, 1991.
Video Interview with Conrad Furey, Memorial University, 1985.
Conrad Furey Official Website

Suggested Viewing:
Conrad Furey Official Website
Video Interview with Conrad Furey, Memorial University, 1985.