Gary Markle

About the Artist

Gary Markle was born in 1963 in Bella Bella, British Columbia. In the late 60s he moved with his family to Toronto, Ontario, where at age five he began attempting fashion design by draping beach towels on his older and very patient sister. He also created gowns using clothespins to hold the forms. By the mid 1970s his family relocated to London, Ontario. He  attended H. B. Beal Secondary School’s enriched art programme, Beal Art. Although entering the school believing he would be a painter; he quickly fell in love with textiles. This brought him back to his childhood love of fashion.

In 1983 Markle moved to New York and began his studies in fashion design at the post-secondary level. He graduated from Parson’s School of Design in 1988 with a BFA in Fashion. In the winter of 1990, he moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia to continue his studies.  Markle graduated from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University (NSCAD) with an MFA in Textiles in 1995.

In 2009 Markle returned  to NSCAD, this time as Assistant Professor of Textiles/Fashion with a specialization in fashion. According to Markle, “I continue to feel like a student when it comes to being a maker of things. Imagination is still my favourite playground and fashion design is still my preferred escape from the ordinary.”