Persona

Cicansky, Vic, 1935-

Sculptor Vic Cicansky was born in Regina, Sakatchewan in 1935. He completed a Bachelor of Education at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon in 1964, and a Bachelor of Arts at Regina Campus in 1967. He studied at the Haystack Mountain School of Art in Deer Island, Maine, and at the Universty of California, Davis, where he obtained a Master of Fine Arts in 1970. That same year he began teaching at Regina Campus, where he continued in the Department of Visual Arts until his retirement in 1994. He was granted Emeritus status from the University of Regina at that time. Cicansky's work, chiefly ceramic sculptures and wall murals, has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions at public and commercial galleries across Canada and in the United States, England, France and China. He has undertaken several important commissions including "The Old Working Class" (1977) and "The New Working Class" (1981), both in the Sturdy-Stone Building in Saskatoon, and "The Garden Fence" (1983-84) in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation building in Regina. His work is represented internationally in numerous private and institutional collections. Besides his teaching at the University of Regina, Cicansky has taught courses in Banff, Halifax, Davis, California and Newfoundland, and has presented various workshops, lectures and slide presentations across Canada. He has been a member of several Canada Council and other art competition juries. He has also served on the Saskatchewan Arts Board, the Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery Board, the Wascana Centre Arts Advisory Committee, and the Applied Arts Advisory Committee of the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology, Woodland Campus. Upon Cicansky's return from California in 1970, he resided in Craven, Saskatchewan where he served serveral terms on the Village Council. He lived in Craven until 1989. Currently he lives in Regina where he continues to create sculptures at his Ceramsky Art Works studio. Cicansky met American artist David Zack in San Francisco when Cicansky was studying at the University of California, in Davis. Zack lived in Rainbow house, a house he had painted entirely in rainbow colours, where informal monthly meetings of artists would take place. When a position for an art historian came up at the University of Saskatchewan, Regina Campus, Cicansky urged Zack to apply for it. Zack was successful in securing the position, and came to Regina in 1969 to teach. He taught various courses and classes at the university until 1974, when he was not rehired. Zack left the community, but reappeared upon occasion until about 1988. It is unknown what subsequently happened to him.