Victor Cicansky

Victor Cicansky, (February 12, 1935 – March 3, 2025) was a Canadian sculptor known for his witty narrative ceramics and bronze fruits and vegetables. A founder of the Regina Clay Movement, Cicansky combined a "wry sense of style" with a postmodern "aesthetic based on place and personal experience". The eldest son of Mary and Frank Cicansky (Czekanski) of Romanian descent, he grew up in the working-class neighborhood of Garlic Flats, known for its vegetable gardens. At age 16, he left school to work in construction, but later returned to graduate with a Bachelor of Education from University of Saskatchewan, and Bachelor of Arts (1967) from the University of Regina. At Davis, Cicansky was awarded the Kingsley Annual Award for Sculpture (1969) and he graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in 1970. In 1974, Cicansky moved "back to the land" and converted a former school in Craven into a studio.

Career Art Cicansky explored Prairie imagery – from fruit, vegetables and canning jars to outhouses and Volkswagens – in sculpture. Other works reference art; his terra-cotta The Old Working Class-1 (Sturdy Stone Centre, Saskatoon) is a visual play on Van Gogh's Potato Eaters. His oeuvre also includes tables, benches or plates entwined with pear trees, grapevines and corn.

Regina Clay Movement (1968–1988) Cicansky's first solo exhibition – held in 1968 at the Dunlop Art Gallery (Regina Public Library) – was followed by solo shows in 1970 at the University of California, Davis, and in 1973 at the Moose Jaw Art Museum. In January 1973, he also participated in the sculptural clay group exhibition held at the MacKenzie Art Gallery (University of Regina). This show caught the attention of the Canada Council for the Arts who selected Cicansky along with Joe Fafard, Russell Yuristy, and Marilyn Levine and Ann James for Canada Trajectoires ’73 in Paris, the first international exhibition of the Regina ceramists. In the following years this group exhibited across Canada and were known collectively as the Regina Clay Movement. and national interest following exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Ontario (1973), Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (1974), Alberta College of Art Gallery (1976) Dalhousie Art Gallery (1976), Southern Alberta Art Gallery (1977), and the Saskatchewan-California ceramic exchanges (1980) at the MacKenzie Art Gallery and Dunlop Art Gallery. In the following decade Cicansky's work was exhibited with the Regina ceramists at the London Regional Art Gallery (now Museum London) (1982), Glenbow Museum (1984), at Saskatchewan Arts and Crafts exposition in Jilin, China (1985), Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (1987), Mendel Art Gallery (1989), as well as in the 2006 touring exhibition Regina Clay: Worlds in the Making curated by Timothy Long. toured the Glenbow Museum, Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, Mendel Art Gallery, and the Swift Current National Exhibition Centre. Throughout his career, solo exhibitions of his work were held at Mira Godard Gallery (Toronto), Galerie de Bellefeuille (Montreal), Slate Fine Art Gallery (Regina), and Douglas Udell Gallery (Edmonton). A prolific artist, Cicansky also exhibited at Masters Gallery (Calgary) and at Art Fairs across North America. Cicansky continued to live and work in Regina.

In 2019, the MacKenzie Art Gallery debuted Victor Cicansky: The Gardener's Universe, a touring retrospective exhibition which brought together over 100 of his works. A film was made at that time about him. The film was shown in the gallery again in 2025 in honour of his life and death.

Selected public collections Cicansky's work is found in the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa ON), Gardiner Museum (Toronto ON), Burlington Art Centre, Confederation Centre Art Gallery (Charlottetown PE), his work reflects his upbringing, love of gardening and opposition to urban "disdain of anything small." For Ferguson, Cicansky's tableaux, The Old Working Class and The New Working Class reflects a concern for local histories and "Prairie socialism". At the time of his solo exhibition at the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, journalist Nancy Tousley wrote: "These works are about place, but they take a slightly distanced view — their knowing humour is benevolent but satirical, it hovers outside or above the depicted scenario." Curator Timothy Long wrote that his fusion of art references with childhood memories, a "riotous marriage of high and low culture"... "results in a wry prairie humour which is uniquely Cicansky's." Although representative of an era, for Dunlop Gallery curator Wayne Morgan: "The stories told by the main clay artists during this period — Cicansky, Fafard, Levine, Thauberger and Yuristy — remain true today and are still important."

In recognition for his artistic achievement, Cicansky was awarded the Victoria and Albert Award for Ceramic Sculpture (1987), the Saskatchewan Order of Merit (1996), the Saskatchewan Lieutenant-Governor's Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts (2012). and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012). In 2009 he was named a member of the Order of Canada for his contribution as an artist and educator.

Cicansky died on March 3, 2025, at the age of 90.

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