Remembering Ed Slopek
Professor Emeritus Ed Slopek has died at age 72.
A talented artist and beloved professor, Slopek taught in the School of Image Arts at Toronto Metropolitan University for over twenty years.
Slopek was born in England in 1953, immigrating to Canada with his family as a child. He grew up in and around Montreal, receiving diplomas from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts School of Art and Design and then the Nova Scotia School of Art and Design (NSCAD). He received a Master in Mass Communication from the University of Leicester. In 1995, he received a Doctor of Philosophy from McGill University.
As an artist, Slopek was best known for his video work and art installations that were exhibited globally. Several of his pieces are part of the National Gallery of Canada’s collection. He was a founding member and Director of the Centre for Art Tapes (external link) in Halifax, Nova Scotia, a not for profit artist-run, charitable organization that facilitates and supports artists working with electronic media. He also served as an Assistant Editor of the Canadian Journal of Communication (external link) .
Ed’s major publications include a monograph, Bodies of Art: The Shaping of Aesthetic Experience (Quodlibet), published in 2021; 100 Ears with Parker Kay, published in 2017 to celebrate the centennial of Dada; a book chapter titled “Grand Tours: Gifts, Cybernauts, First Life - Travelling with Likes of Charges Babbage, Raymond Roussel, and Vachel Lindsey” in Ensemble ailleurs - Together Elsewhere (Presses de l’Université du Québec, 2011); “ReEXPOsitioning the Screen: The Past of the Future at Montreal’s World’s Fair,” in Prolifération des écrans / Proliferation of screens (Presses de l’Université du Québec, 2008); and most recently “Voices from the Dead: The Approximately Intersecting Sound-Worlds of Tristan Tzara and Adolf Loos, 1924-1933 (Dada/Surrealism Journal, November 2025).
"Ed’s humour and intellectual gymnastics fried up with his deep appreciation for art, history and serious contemplation was a kind of wonder for his students… as it was for the rest of us. A few times I was asked to assess some of his classes and that magic was always there. No wonder Ed was a kind of hero prof for his young admirers."
In 2012, Slopek was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. His experience with the disease and treatment for it informed his ongoing artistic work, including an exhibition of paintings he made of significant individuals who influenced his thinking or personal history, who also had Parkinson’s.
Slopek’s final exhibit, "Five Uneasy Pieces" was hosted in IMA’s Gallery 310 in September 2025, accompanied by his recent original musical composition “Into This House We Are Born, Into This World We Are Thrown,” performed by Johnny Spence. Despite his declining health, Slopek worked closely with a number of former students and advisees from Image Arts’ New Media, Photography, and Documentary Media programs to realize this exhibition of both new artworks and recreations of select works from the 1970s, alongside the presentation of recent original musical compositions.
It served as a chance for the IMA community to honour his artistic, academic, and teaching careers and celebrate him with his family and friends.
Remembered for his engaging teaching style and deep commitment to his field, Slopek taught at NSCAD, McGill University, the University of Calgary, and Brock University before joining Toronto Metropolitan University in 1996. Over decades of teaching, he influenced thousands of Image Arts students, from first-year courses such as Concepts and Theories to mentoring senior undergraduate and master’s-level creative projects. Widely regarded as a popular and respected professor, he was known for making complex ideas accessible and compelling, and for fostering creativity alongside rigorous engagement with his subject matter. He retired in 2019.
He remained close with the IMA community post-retirement, keeping in touch with alumni and former colleagues and collaborators. He will be missed by the Image Arts community for his generosity and frequent “get togethers” at the Imperial Pub and Balzac’s for discussion over drinks or coffee. His legacy will endure through his former students who were all touched by his spirit of adventure and curiosity.
Ed’s Celebration of Life will occur at the Tranzac Club (external link) on May 24th, from 6:00 - 9:00 p.m. All are welcome.
