Colin Lyons

Colin Lyons was born in Windsor, Ontario in 1985. He grew up in 'Canada's original oil boomtown' of Petrolia, Ontario, an experience that has fueled his interests in industrial ruins and sacrificial landscapes. His recent work fuses printmaking, sculpture, and chemical experiments, pushing the role of the etching plate beyond its traditional boundaries as a re-enactment of the rise and fall of industrial economies. He explores industry through the lens of fragility and impermanence, considering planned obsolescence and the nature of what we choose to preserve.

Lyons received his BFA from Mount Allison University (2007) and MFA in printmaking from University of Alberta (2012). His work has been shown in solo exhibitions across Canada, as well as in group exhibitions internationally. He has been the recipient of grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Quebec, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, SSHRC, and The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation, among others. Recent projects have been presented at Platform Stockholm (Stockholm, Sweden), The Soap Factory (Minneapolis, Minnesota), OBORO (Montreal, Quebec), ARTSPACE (Peterborough, Ontario), Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery (Sarnia, Ontario), Kala Art Institute (Berkeley, California), and SPACES (Cleveland, Ohio). He currently lives in Hamilton, Ontario.