A close-up of a stone sculpture featuring a geometric face design, with prominent eyes and abstract features. The sculpture has a textured surface and a weathered green-blue patina, positioned on a square base. The background is blurred, suggesting an outdoor setting with additional architectural elements.

Eliza Mayhew, Guardian II, 1963, bronze. SFU Art Collection. Gift of the Rothmans of Pall Mall Canada Ltd., 1967. 

Dale Northey
A close-up of a stone sculpture featuring a geometric face design, with prominent eyes and abstract features. The sculpture has a textured surface and a weathered green-blue patina, positioned on a square base. The background is blurred, suggesting an outdoor setting with additional architectural elements.

Title

Guardian II

Artist

Eliza Mayhew

Year

1963

Medium

Bronze

Collection

SFU Art Collection

Donor

Gift of the Rothmans of Pall Mall Canada Ltd.

Year Acquired

1967

In the Academic Quadrangle’s east plaza is a small, bronze sculpture by Elza Mayhew. Born in Victoria, Mayhew travelled extensively and her modernist sculptures often recall the ancient architectural and monumental forms that she’d seen in Asia, Europe, and Central America. The incised lines and recessed, geometric sections of Guardian II for example, reflect interests in hieroglyphics, the basrelief carving of the ancient Assyrians, and most notably in this case, Mayan stelae.  

Artists

Eliza Mayhew (1916–2004) studied French and Latin at the University of British Columbia and returned to a career in art later in life, completing her MFA at the University of Oregon in 1963. She has shown her work internationally and was selected to represent Canada at the 1964 Venice Biennale. Her work is held in the collections of the University of Victoria, the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, the National Gallery of Canada, Brock University (St. Catherines, ON), and Confederation Centre (Ottawa, ON).