Born in the Netherlands in 1943, Klunder immigrated to Canada in 1952, where he lived in Toronto for a number of years.

Harold Klunder is an abstract painter living and working in Montreal, Quebec. He attended Central Technical School in Toronto from 1960-64.

He had his first solo show at Sable-Castelli Gallery in 1976 and, for more than three decades since then, he has exhibited regularly. Klunder is well known for his non-traditional notion of ‘the self-portrait’ in his large-scale textural paintings that take years to complete. His lavish use of paint echoes the tradition of impasto painting as exemplified in the works of Rembrandt, Van Gogh, and de Kooning. A talented and unabashed colourist, Klunder favours rich hues that become the substance of his paintings. As the layers of paint accumulate, the artist moves between representation and abstract expressionism. The painstaking practice of multiple layers over several years is made concrete for the viewer. Despite his slow and deliberate hand, Klunder’s work reflects the on-going history of painting as he embodies ideas of vitality and transformation, of biology and duration, as well as identities that are mutable. His paintings are held in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Art Gallery of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Museum London, the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Winnipeg Art Gallery among others.