Ron Shuebrook
Birth Date: 1943

Artist Gallery
Ron Shuebrook was born in Fort Munroe, Virginia in 1943. He studied at Kutztown State College in Pennsylvania; Haystack Mountain School in Deer Isle, Maine; and Kent State University. It was slightly more than twenty years before Shuebrook began his career as an art professional. During this time he taught art at every level from pre-school to graduate school, was a social worker and served in the United States Army. He now lives and works in the Toronto, Canada area. He has taught and been an administrator at many institutions in the United States and Canada including Kent State University, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, the Ottawa School of Art, and the University of Guelph. He is also the former President and Vice President, Academic, of the Ontario College of Art and Design. He is a past president of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. In May 2005, he received an honorary doctorate from OCAD for his contributions to art and higher education in Canada, and on November 10, 2006 he received the 2006 Art Administrator’s Award of Distinction from the National Council of Art Administrators, an affiliated society of the College Art Association. In his own words he explains what a catalyst for his interest in the arts was. “ I’ve said elsewhere why I became an abstract painter. It had to do with how certain art was persuasive…I didn’t know why it moved me… and I sought out people who could help me understand that. And the more I learned, the richer the experience seemed to be…I know in my nature I seem to be a sort of balance, I’m a very physical person and I enjoy getting my hands dirty, and I also enjoy getting my hands dirty, and I also enjoy thinking about things, so painting seemed to be a good place to do both”. Throughout much of Shuebrook’s life as an artist, he has sought to develop a body of work that respects the intellectual and aesthetic legacy of early and mid-20th Century modernisms, while accommodating his own curiosities, capacities, and beliefs. These various traditions, ranging from the examples of Cezanne, Matisse,and Mondrian to Hans Hofmann, Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, Willem deKooning, and Philip Guston, have served him as persuasive models of engagement and ambition.