Accession 95-63 - David Gilhooly

David Gilhooly was born in Auburn, California, he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree (1965) and a Master of Arts degree (1967) from the University of California at Davis. There he studied principally with the sculptor Robert Arneson.

Gilhooly studied at the studio, TB-9 where he was one of the founders of “The Funk Ceramic Movement”. Davis is 80 miles east of San Francisco so their movement is often associated with the San Francisco Bay Area. Others in the movement include Margaret Dodd, Chris Unterseher, Peter Vandenberge and of course, Robert Arneson. He is now a well-known sculptor and printmaker, who is especially recognized for his ceramic sculpture of animals, food, planets and the “FrogWorld”. In 1982 Gilhooly started exploring plexiglas as an art media and in 1995 he officially gave up clay and the plexiglas work to work on what he calls shadow boxes, assemblages of found objects. As the 21st Century began, he also began doing assemblage of jigsaw puzzles and most recently large paintings which incorporate assemblage element. He has also been working extensively with collage that are then turned into prints.

Gilhooly’s teaching career has included the University of California at Davis, in 1975 and 1976; York University in Ontario, Canada from 1971 to 1977; San Jose State College in San Jose, California in 1967 to 1969 and the University of Saskatchewan, Regina Campus from 1969 to 1971. It was during this time that he influenced and was influenced by Saskatchewan artists, Vic Cicansky, Joe Fafard, Russ Yuristy and David Thauberger.

His works of art have exhibited throughout the world, and from the east coast of Canada to the west coast, he is featured in many publications and his work is held in both private and corporate ad collections.

David Gilhooly passed away in 2013.