Rick Raxlen

Biography

Rick Raxlen has been working as an artist and filmmaker since the late '60s. He began as a filmmaker with the NFB alongside Arthur Lipsett and Norman McLaren in Montreal, and was awarded one of only two Genies (Canadian Film Award) ever given for Best Experimental Film ("Legend," 1970). After a stint teaching at Concordia University and many short films, he went on to make the feature film "Horses in Winter" (1988), named as one of the best films of the eighties by Cinematheque Quebecois. After many more short works and another award-winning feature ("The Strange Blues of Cowboy Red," 1995), Rick abandoned the long form out of frustration with the impersonal nature of the process, and turned in earnest to a new obsession: the animated short form. This has been his primary moving image-based artwork for the past 25 years since he relocated to Victoria, BC. Rick is a strong proponent of non-institutionalized art-making practices and largely works outside of the system, producing and exchanging Mail Art and an incredible output of drawing and printmaking work presented in galleries and alternative venues worldwide.