Leo Mol
1915–2009 · Ukrainian-born Canadian sculptor and painter
Leo Mol, born Leonid Molodozhanyn in Polonne, then in the Russian Empire and now in Ukraine, was a Ukrainian-born Canadian sculptor, painter and stained glass artist whose career unfolded mainly in Canada. He learned ceramics in his father's pottery workshop, within a family of potters, and studied sculpture at the Leningrad Academy of Arts from 1936 to 1940. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union he was deported to Germany, where the work of Arno Breker left a mark on him. In 1948 he emigrated with his wife to Winnipeg, and in 1949 he held his first ceramics exhibition there.
His bronzes depict religious leaders, public figures, the human form and wildlife. Among the best known are the Taras Shevchenko memorial in Washington, D.C., the Terry Fox statue in Ottawa and the John Diefenbaker statue on Parliament Hill. He was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1989.
His most visible legacy is the Leo Mol Sculpture Garden, opened in 1992 in Winnipeg's Assiniboine Park, which displays more than three hundred of his works. Mol donated 200 bronzes to the city, and the garden has been expanded since.