Visual artist Gerald Folkerts dies at age 51

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This article was published 31/05/2009 (6059 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG–A respected Winnipeg visual artist lost his battle with brain cancer this weekend..

Gerald Folkerts died Saturday evening at the Riverview Health Centre. He had been diagnosed with a brain tumour in September. He was 51.

“He was full of life and full of creativity,” said his friend Jamie Howison, pastoral leader of St. Benedict’s Table Anglican Church.

“He had an inquiring and discerning mind. But he was no plaster saint; he was pretty real and complex.”

Known for his Christian-themed paintings, Folkerts was a member of the Manitoba Society of Artists and a singer with the Winnipeg vocal octet Celbr8.

On several occasions his paintings were awarded first place in the MSA’s annual juried exhibition and show, most recently in 2006.

His work had been displayed in numerous group and solo exhibitions in North America, and he was an award winner at the Imago Christian art exhibition in Toronto.

In January, at an Exchange District gallery, more than 2,000 people attended a four-day retrospective of his work, Unfinished Business, which had been organized by his friends.

His daughter-in-law Dana maintained an online blog, A Gravel Road Journey, to document the progress of his illness.

A posting Saturday night said, “Dad very peacefully took his last breaths of life,” at 6:50 p.m. surrounded by his family members.

The MSA currently has its 77th juried exhibition on display on the sixth floor of the downtown Bay department store. This year’s first-place winner is Winnipeg painter Klara Piko.

Folkerts, who worked out of a studio attached to his East Kildonan home, is survived by his wife, Arlis, four children and two grandchildren.

The funeral is slated for Saturday at 11 a.m. at the Covenant Christian Reformed Church, 653 Knowles Ave.

morley.walker@freepress.mb.ca