Ian McKinnon is a Halifax based artist, mark-maker, mentor and pilgrim. His settler origins stretch back at least four generations maternally and paternally along the Northumberland Strait in Nova Scotia’s Cumberland and Colchester counties.
He earned a BFA from NSCAD (1980) and a MFA from Concordia (1994.) A part-time faculty member, Ian has taught drawing at NSCADU in the Foundation Year program since 2003.
Baptism and confirmation into the Anglican Church of Canada drew Ian to theological studies at the Atlantic School of Theology (2005/6) He then transferred to the Faculty of Divinity at Trinity College (University of Toronto) where he completed a Master of Theology Studies (2011). March 2014 to December 2016 Ian was Parish Artist-in-Residence at St. Paul’s Anglican Church (Halifax, Nova Scotia.) Besides pursuing his own work in a studio graciously provided by the church, he established an exhibition program within the worship space of the historic church, curating and writing about other artists’ work.
A series of large abstract paintings titled Fragments of Glory was generated during his residency at Halifax’s historical St. Paul’s Church.
In 2018/19 a 15-month project culminated in a drawing series, titled Still/Life, comprising over 150 individual drawings. These contemporary (or “neo”) icons were the components of two different installations/exhibitions, the first at ARTsPLACE, Annapolis Royal, the second at Hermes Gallery, Halifax in the summer of 2019.
Since then a series of drawings titled Harvesting/Time has been completed and Ian is currently absorbed in a new series of works titled Full/Circle.
A solo exhibition of works selected from all three of these recent series has been confirmed for November 2021 at The Craig Gallery, Alderney Landing, Dartmouth, N.S.