All Amazed celebrates the life and work of the late Roy Kiyooka (1926-1994), one of Canada's first multi-disciplinary artists whose work transcended categorical and cultural exclusivity.
At various periods of his life, Kiyooka was a painter, sculptor, teacher, poet, musician, filmmaker, and photographer. When Kiyooka arrived in Vancouver in 1959, he was already one of Canada's most respected abstract painters. His modernist stance at the time inspired a generation of Vancouver painters to reach beyond regionalism. In the sixties and seventies, Kiyooka began to write and publish poetry and produce photographic works; the best known of these, StoneDGloves (1969-1970), is both a poetic and photographic project. In all of his projects, he saw the position of the artist as being in opposition to the institutions of art. The shape and scope of Kiyooka's work continues to be revealed, seven years after his death.
Based on a major multidisciplinary conference at the University of British Columbia organized by such luminaries as Michael Ondaatje, Daphne Marlatt, Scott Watson, and John O'Brian, All Amazed pays tribute to a remarkable artist and poet who continues to amaze and astound us.
Includes essays by Roy Miki, Henry Tsang, Sheryl Conkelton, and Scott Toguri McFarlane, as well as numerous black and white images of Kiyooka's artwork.

John O'Brian teraches Art History at the University of British Columbia. He is author of David Milne and the Modern Tradition of Painting: The Flat Side of the Landscape and Degas to Matisse: The Maurice Wetheim Collection, and editor of Clement Greenberg: The Collected Essays and Criticism.

John O'Brian's profile page

Naomi Sawada is the Coordinator of Public Programs of the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at the University of British Columbia.

Naomi Sawada's profile page

Scott Watson is Director/Curator of the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery.

Scott Watson's profile page

All Amazed is a welcome addition to the small but growing corpus of critical writings on the poet, painter, photographer and teacher, Roy Kiyooka. Edited by the organizers of a conference on Kiyooka held in Vancouver in 1999, this volume of essays, reflections, poems, and photograhs successfully conveys the collaborative spirit, multidisciplinarity, energy, and intimacy that characterized the unique event.
-Canadian Literature 183

Canadian Literature

A small book of writings that developed from The Roy Kiyooka Conference at ECIAD in October, 1999--which itself was a retrospective gathering.
-Preview, The Gallery Guide

Preview

This book is both a valuable research tool and an important stepping-stone towards establishing the full breadth of Roy Koyooka's contribution to Canadian culture.
-BC Studes

BC Studies

With his experimental sensibility and his constant search for new forms, Kiyooka occupies an important place within Canadian art as one of its truly multi-disciplinary artists.
-Canadian Art

Canadian Art