Elza Mayhew

Elza Edith Mayhew (January 19, 1916 – January 11, 2004) was a Canadian sculptor who worked mainly in bronze.

In 1938, she married Charles Alan Mayhew, the son of Robert Mayhew; the couple had two children. He died in June 1943 when his plane went down during a hurricane while he was serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force.

In later life, Mayhew suffered from brain damage brought on by styrene poisoning from the styrofoam moulds that she used during the sculpting process. She died at the Lodge at Broadmead in Victoria at the age of 87.

Her former studio in Victoria has been designated as a heritage building by the city of Victoria. the Canadian National Capital Commission and the Royal British Columbia Museum.

Colin Graham of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria described her sculptures as "modern in concept yet having affinities with the past, with totemic poles, Mayan stelae, Egyptian stone sculpture, and other hieratic forms".

Awards and service In 1962, she received the Otto Beit Medal from the Royal Society of British Sculptors. In 1964, with Harold Town, she represented Canada at the Venice Biennale. She served on the board of directors for the International Sculpture Center in Kansas from 1968 to 1979.

Mayhew was the subject of the 1985 film Time-Markers: The Sculpture of Elza Mayhew.

Collections Her work is included in the collections of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, the National Gallery of Canada, Simon Fraser University and the University of Victoria. Her sculpture Column of the Sea is located at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery in Charlottetown.