Known for her murals, graphics, oils, drawings, lithos and sculpture rendered in bronze, silver and marble, the work of Sylvia Lefkovitz has been exhibited throughout the world, and is found in private collections across Europe and North America.  Born in Montreal in 1924, Lefkovitz began her art studies in that city, continuing in New York, Paris, Mexico, Spain and Italy.

A stint in Mexico in 1958 profoundly influenced her and on her return to Canada a year later, she completed a series of historical murals on the Life of Louis Riel, now on permanent exhibition in North Battleford, Saskatchewan. An additional series on The Acadians hangs at Ste-Anne’s University in Nova Scotia.

Lefkovitz moved to Italy in 1960 where she made her home for twenty years. She won Florence’s Porcellino Award as Best Resident Foreign Artist.  Shortly afterwards, a solo exhibit of her work was held in Milan. The exhibition won critical acclaim, and she was lauded for her interpretation of the Italian Renaissance tradition in both her painting and sculpture. She went on to win many awards and commissions in both Europe and North America, and returned to Montreal in 1981. She died there in 1987.

Major works include the eighty-figure Divine Comedy, produced in 1963 through the “lost wax” process, as well as the Fathers of Confederation, a series of ninety separate bronze pieces commemorating the 1967 Canadian Centennial. Additional castings of that work were presented to each provincial parliament by the Federal Government.  The massive five-figure bronze Chorus was a Montreal landmark for years, standing above the entrance to the Mies van der Rohe Westmount SquareComplex.  Eight bronze panels in bas relief (inspired by Ghilberti’s Bronze Doors on the Bapistery in Florence) recount several stories from the Old Testament.

Sylvia Lefkovitz’s life and work in both Italy and Canada were profiled in the National Film Board of Canada’s documentary In Search of Medea.