Elaine Kowalsky

Elaine Gloria Kowalsky (B. Winnipeg, Canada 1948, d. London UK 2005) was a Canadian printmaker and artists' rights campaigner who lived and worked in the United Kingdom for over 30 years.

Her prints and various other artworks are held in collections around the world. She was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1948, and grew up in the Rural Municipality of Charleswood. After graduating from Charleswood Collegiate in 1967, she attended the School of Art at the University of Manitoba, majoring in Printmaking. Upon her graduation in 1971, she emigrated to London to further her artistic studies and her printmaking career. In 1977 she was instrumental in organizing an ACGB Studio Conversion Grant for the building of the artists co-operative North Star Studios, in Brighton. In 1982 she was the Artist in Residence, Lowick House Workshop, Cumbria. In 1987 she was named to the first Henry Moore Fellowship in Printmaking at the Leeds Poytechnic. She continued with her exhibitions well into the 1990's and beyond, and at the same time earned a Masters in Visual Theory, at the University of East London. At the time of her death, she was registered for M.Phil in Drawing, Royal College of Art.

Throughout her career, Elaine was instrumental in working towards full copyright protection for artists and their works. Noting a lack of regulation in the industry, she organized with fellow artists the Artlaw organization, which primarily sought to give copyright to artists' images and royalty payments upon resale of art. This organization evolved into the Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS). Elaine was the chair of DACS for many years, and campaigned for legislative changes to give the copyright protection to artists that was afforded to other creative industry workers. She died in September 2005, shortly before the legislation she helped to bring about came into effect in January, 2006. In her honour, DACS named their new gallery after her, and use it to produce exhibitions featuring new artists. The Kowalsky Gallery is located at 33 Sutton Street in East London.

Personal life

She was the daughter of Cliff and Rosemary Kowalsky. She had three brothers, Cliff, Barry and Ken. She was married to Elton Bash from 1978 and had no children.

External links

* http://www.dacs.org.uk/
* http://www.theprintstudio.co.uk/kowalski.htm
* http://www.kowalsky.co.uk/
* http://www.commentart.com/gallery/The_Kowalsky_Gallery_at_DACS

References

* http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,3604,1579620,00.html
* http://www.leedsmet.ac.uk/vco/reflect/sep05/sep28.htm