Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1979-2022 (Creation)
Level of description
Fonds
Extent and medium
18.9m of textual records and other material
5975 photographs (3548 prints, b&w and col.; 2262 negatives; 575 slides)
31 prints (etchings)
24 coins
26 optical discs
3 3 ½ inch floppy disks
3 enamel coated pins
2 bound volumes
1 printing plate
1 plaque
1 contractor button
1 poster
1 set of hardcover boards
ca. 30 architectural elevation drawings
1 memory card
2 external hard drives (ca. 1.1TB)
Note: Other material includes predominantly graphic material in the form of colour printouts of images and computer renderings, as well as other items such as artist multiples, maquettes, installation components, bookwork proofs, and related material pertaining to specific works and projects detailed in the finding aid. Specifically, these are 4 coins, 6 bound volumes, 2 plaques, 1 balloon, 1 piece of string, 8 cork circle pads, 5 jigsaw puzzles, 1 fabric work (scarf), 5 metal installation components, 1 sample of bronze spray, and 2 metal tile maquettes. Further details about these materials and the projects they relate to can be found in the Scope and Content notes at the file-level.
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Micah Lexier (1960- ) has established a national and international recognition as an artist, curator, and avid collector. His artistic practice is rooted in conceptual art and is often characterized by its collaborative nature. He works across a multitude of media which include sculpture, drawing, photography, video, and installation. Lexier’s artworks are often recognized for their engagement with concepts such as time, language, and the everyday, which are emphasized through his preference for process over the end product, and an artistic methodology that centers around documenting, collecting, and organizing.
Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Lexier studied at the University of Manitoba, receiving a Bachelor of Fine Art in 1982. He went on to earn a Master of Fine Art from the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design in 1984. Lexier then spent more than a decade living and working in Toronto, before moving abroad to New York in 1999. In 2008 he returned to Toronto, where he has since remained.
In 2015 Lexier received the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts. His extensive exhibition history includes over 100 solo exhibitions and more than 200 group exhibitions. He has also been commissioned to produce more than a dozen public art installations at venues including the Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery (1991), Toronto’s Metro Hall (1992), and Toronto’s Bay-Adelaide Centre (2016). His work is in many major Canadian and international collections including the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, the British Museum, and the Contemporary Art Gallery (Sydney, Australia). In 2013, Lexier exhibited a landmark solo show at The Power Plant (Toronto, ON) entitled One, and Two, and More Than Two. The “one” portion of the show presented a 30 year retrospective of his work in the form of an artwork entitled Working as a Drawing. It was complemented by parts “two” and “more than two,” which showcased his practice in collaboration with more than 100 Toronto artists.
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Gift of Micah Lexier, 2018.
Gift of Micah Lexier, 2023.
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Fonds consists of the working papers of Micah Lexier. Items include correspondence, sketches, computer renderings, project descriptions and proposals, press clippings, publicity materials, photographs, and other documents pertaining to the design and fabrication of artworks.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
The creator transferred the first body of material now constituting the Micah Lexier fonds to the Art Gallery of Ontario in 2018. A second accrual of material was transferred by the creator to the Art Gallery of Ontario in 2023. Further accruals are expected.
System of arrangement
Materials were originally divided into five series: Individual Projects by Year, Accounting (Sales/Fabrication Receipts), Curatorial Files, Design Files, and Specific Projects. The Accounting (Sales/Fabrication Receipts), Curatorial Files, and Design Files series have been interfiled chronologically into the Individual Projects by Year series by the processing archivist. The original order has been otherwise maintained.
Maintenance of the original order is of particular importance for this collection, due to the significance of archiving to Lexier’s artistic practice. Lexier’s archive has been deliberately structured and the documents have been coded to map their relationship to Working as a Drawing and his oeuvre as a whole. The archive is notably concise and tightly organized, and each year of the artist’s practice was originally reflected in a single banker’s box of documentation (the records have been transferred into Hollinger boxes as part of archival processing).
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Open. Access to Special Collections is by appointment only. Please contact the reference desk for more information.
Conditions governing reproduction
Copyright is held by the creator. Copyright belonging to other parties, such as that of photographs, may still rest with the creator of these items. It is the researcher’s responsibility to obtain permission to publish any part of the fonds.
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Several photographs and files in Series 2 are in poor condition due to water damage.
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
Several photographs in folder 89-2 are are stuck together due to water damage and require the attention of a conservator.
Note
Title based on the provenance of the fonds.
Alternative identifier(s)
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
Language(s)
Script(s)
Sources
Archivist's note
Prepared by Hannah Johnston, 2018. Uploaded and adapted by Nirvana Chainani, 2019. Updated by Camille McDayter, 2024.