Micah Lexier is a Winnipeg-born, Toronto-based Canadian artist who combines conceptual art and sculpture in his work. Working in a variety of media, his exhibitions and permanent pieces appear all over the world, including large-scale public art pieces and works incorporated into the interior and exterior of buildings. In 2015, he was awarded the Governor General’s Award in Visual & Media Arts.

Exploring the themes of time, lifespan and aging, order and disorder, his ideas are manifested in a variety of pieces, including puzzles, diagrams and geometric shapes, public artworks and installations, and architectural projects. He often plays with concepts of time and space like in his “A Minute of My Time” series. Lexier has experimented with the concept of paintings which take exactly one minute to make since the mid-1990s, in various forms: as graffiti, drawings on a chalkboard or scribbles with a ballpoint pen, and by transforming some of the one-minute scribbles into laserjet-cut steel sculpture reliefs, sewing the lines onto paper, or creating rubber stamps out of them.

The passage of time meets aging and mortality, as well as order and disorder, in “A work of art in the form of a quantity of coins equal to the number of months of the statistical life expectancy of a child born January 6, 1995”, part of his Art Gallery of Ontario 2004 exhibition: a portrait of a life is created with 906 coins, as one coin is transferred each month from neat rows in one box to a random pile in a second box.

(Photo credits: Micah Lexier. Clockwise, from top left: Mural of the side of Warby Parker eye care & glasses shop, “The Hall of Names” and “A to B”, a group show curated by Micah Lexier about sequence and consecutiveness, featuring 37 artists, presented at MKG127, Toronto, July 2010. Image on the Start Exploring page: “The Forest & The Trees”.)

What we like about this artist

There’s a playful, yet thoughtful quality to Lexier’s work. Chaotic, yet controlled. And we love that he experiments with so many ways of making art, engaging our minds as we experience his work in art galleries, public spaces, and on the inside and outside of buildings. What Elena loves most about this artist is how much folliness there is in his work.

We especially love how he uses letters and words in his artworks, like in “Letters, Words, Numbers,” incorporated into the bricks of the Fraser Mustard Early Learning Academy building in Toronto’s Thorncliffe Park neighbourhood. And in the fun sense of word play of “Coincidence”, a piece created in collaboration with writer Derek McCormack. (Written by C.M.)

Ideas for where you can go from here:

• See Micah Lexier’s art.
• View his work at Birchmount Contemporary. Which piece is your favourite?
• If you’re in Toronto, visit some of his installation and public artwork, like “The Hall of Names” at The Enercare Centre (Exhibition Place), “Ampersand” at the Leslie subway station, “Letters, Words, Numbers,” mentioned above and more.

We love sculptors because they inspire you to look at art in three dimensions, within the space that it occupies. Looking at art in three dimensions, within the space that it occupies allows you to actively engage with the art by moving around it and viewing it from different angles. Actively engaging with art is part of the flourishing offline life Young W helps you discover: by exploring ART and the other 8 pillars of Arts & Letters, including those you may be hesitant to try.

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