(1914–1976)
Frank Travis was born in Toronto and grew up in a Catholic orphanage. He began drawing at the age of eleven and later studied technical drawing but failed to complete his training. He worked in a variety of jobs until he joined the Canadian Air Force in 1941. He began art studies after the war but his mental health deteriorated. Travis was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was thirty-five and was confined to a psychiatric hospital where he produced hundreds of drawings in graphite and chalk. Fascinated with the human body, Travis’s work depicts robotic bodies equipped with mechanical devices.

Collections: Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne; Western University, London, Ontario.