Speaking at the 1991 Royal Canadian Academy Exhibition, Kosso Eloul described sculpture as an inherently celebratory art form with its own purposeful life, independent of the artist.  “The sculptures become free of me,” he marvelled, “[and] that’s magic.” 

Gallery Gevik is thrilled to present a solo retrospective exhibition dedicated to one of Toronto’s most celebrated sculptors and prolific creators of public art – Kosso Eloul (1920-1995):  A Retrospective opens Saturday, May 3, 2025 from 1 – 5 pm in conjunction with the Art Dealer’s Association of Canada‘s 2025 Canadian Art Hop.  In addition to never before seen sculptures and works on paper, visitors will also enjoy historical displays created by the artist that provide a glimpse at the making of a few of his 64 large-scale public sculptures worldwide.

Born in 1920 in Morum, Russia, Kosso was smuggled out of the USSR at four years old with his family and settled in Tel Aviv where, in 1938, he studied sculpture with Yitzhak Danziger.  After a lengthy stop in pre-WWII Paris, he moved to Chicago, enrolled at the Art Institute of Chicago and attended lectures by Helen Gardener-Zettler, Frank Lloyd Wright and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy.  During his apprenticeship, Kosso gravitated towards the geometric shape as the foundation of his artistic expression – the simple, elemental and predictable block would inspire the young artist to create a visual vocabulary that served him for the rest of his career.   

Kosso Eloul came to Canada in the summer of 1964 at the invitation of the International Sculpture Symposium in Montreal, and settled in Toronto with the renowned artist and painter Rita Letendre (1928-2021).  Kosso and Rita were larger-than-life and their union was one of harmony, love and respect, creating an artistic environment in which their bold, individual visions were reconciled.  Both artists had tremendous energy and derived profound enjoyment from building and working with their hands.  When they weren’t creating art, they were entertaining hundreds of guests in the wonderful townhouse they shared on Sherbourne Street in Toronto – a place that  hummed with the sounds of Rita joyfully whipping up a feast in the kitchen while Kosso lovingly tending to their lush gardens and koi pond.

It was in this environment that Kosso built his career and refined his trademark steel monolithic forms that would spark the imagination of the public   Kosso described the delicate balancing act of his sculptures as an expression of the “Yes/No within ourselves – our universe, our culture, a way to affirm and describe our existence and involvements.”  Over time, he refined his thoughts, referring to opposing forces of tenderness and aggression or the relationship between two personalities, ideas, or countries.  Our quest for balance, both within ourselves and amongst each other, is an eternal one and for Kosso, it is a quest that has no end point.

Over the course of his career Kosso created some of the most visionary public art in the world.  At the time of his death in 1995, 64 of Kosso’s large-scale public sculptures had been erected – 22 in Toronto, 12 across the rest of Canada, 14 in the United States, 5 in Israel, 8 in Europe and 1 in each of China, Mexico and Japan.  These monumental works speak to the ceremonial and the celebrative in life – “an affirmation of being here on this earth, of achieving goals we humans set for ourselves, as individuals and as society.  Mine is a very public art.  Extroverted.” 

Some of Kosso’s most renowned landmarks include HardFact, 1965, a monolith-like ode to both the hardness and openness of our culture at the University of California, Long Beach, the 1961 Eternal Flame at Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, Meeting Place, 1984, at the corner of Sherbourne and Bloor Street in Toronto, ON and Time, 1973, overlooking Lake Ontario in honour of Kingston’s Tercentenary.

Kosso considered the viewer an integral part of his work.  “I want to create the arches,” he once declared, “the passages and the gateways through which we can ceremonially and symbolically shed our previous selves and emerge refreshed, ready for the future that awaits us.”

Kosso Eloul’s career spanned over fifty years.  His honours include residencies at the Berlin Akademie der Kunst, the University of California Long Beach (1965-66), and the University of Toronto School of Architecture (1969).  In 1978 he was awarded the Medal of Achievement of Mexico City, and made an Honorary Fellow of the Dutch Royal Academy of Fine Art.  His work can be found in the collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of Brandeis University, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), the Lannan Foundation, the Jewish Museum, New York City, and the Museum of Tel Aviv, among many others.  His personal archives, consisting of correspondence, essays, sketches, photographic documentation, and maquettes are held by the Art Gallery of Ontario.