Happy Canada Day! Five Canadian Artists You Should Know

In honour of July 1st, Canada Day, here are five Canadian artists you should know:

Jean-Paul Riopelle – master of the Les Automatistes, a Québécois movement started in Montreal and the North's exponent of Ab-Ex. Riopelle is known for his unique gestural canvases, often painted solely with a palette knife.

Jeff Wall – pioneering member of the Vancouver photo-conceptualist school and one of the single most influential photographers of last century.  He is credited with pushing the medium to new conceptual bounds and creating constructed large-scale images and light boxes.

Edward Burtynsky – it is said that "every board room in Toronto has a Burtynsky" and that hardly seems to be an exaggeration given Canada's natural resource sector and the artist's ability to capture aerial views of nickel mines in remote regions, transforming industrial waste into sublime vistas.

Marman and Borins – this Toronto-based duo have been on the Canadian scene for a while and about to make a significant splash on New York with a show at Tierney Gardarin scheduled this fall. High conceptualism and witt abound in their work.

Jon Rafman – Rafman is an emerging artist who's achieved a lot of international acclaim and is the star of The Peckham Pavilion – the unruly off-site hangout at the 55th Venice Biennale for the 'cool kids'.  Combining high art and high tech, his works create virtual worlds online and in physical space.