When John Greer (b. 1944) started teaching sculpture at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in the 1970s, the college was fast becoming one of the incubators of the emerging international Conceptual Art movement. From his early experiments in conceptual sculpture, Greer’s artistic practice shifted to re-engage with traditional sculptural forms and techniques, re-imagining them in a way that would make him a pivotal figure in contemporary sculpture in Canada. In his essay, Ray Cronin recounts the arc of Greer’s career, demonstrating how Greer’s work refreshes and extends our understanding of the language of sculpture and the way in which thought might be made manifest in material.