Murray Favro

Murray Favro was born in Huntsville, Ontario, in 1940. A painter, sculptor, and musician, he was a key figure in the fertile arts scene of the 1960s in London, Ontario. In 1965, he was a founding member of the Nihilism Spasm Band, an experimental collective dedicated to exploring uncharted territories for sound. His high-impact paintings from the early 1960s were executed in oil and automotive enamels on Masonite. The paintings are remarkable for their chromatic punch and for the violence and dynamism of their subject matter. Around 1965, Favro abandoned painting for sculpture—guitars, machines, airplanes, experiments with film images, and a wide array of other inventions.