Neil Farber

Canadian, b. 1975

Untitled (Octopus and Hunter), 2000

Ink on gouged hardboard

30.5 (ht) x 30.5 (wi) cm

Collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery; Gift of the artist

2001-289

Categories:

Drawing, Canadian Contemporary (1980-present)

Neil Farber is a founding member of the Winnipeg-based artist collective the Royal Art Lodge and a graduate of the University of Manitoba’s School of Art. His creative practice is dominated by drawings and paintings executed in a sophisticated, yet child-like, manner. Farber’s individual and highly personal style draws upon a quiet and wry sense of humour, mixed with an underlying dark, sardonic character to create perplexing and confusing narratives. Here we are presented with a hunter holding a spear in the process of killing a red octopus with a large green eye. This work is indicative of Farber’s approach of pulling playful and yet disturbing images from our contemporary culture, which is dominated by television, film, advertising, cartoons, and toys.