25th Anniversary Exhibit – Members’ Exhibit – Jan 19 – Feb 28

Chris Siems 

• “Borealis“
• 2021
• 12X12
• Acrylic & Resin on Canvas

I have worked with multiple media including wire, resin, wood, plaster and most recently acrylic on canvas. Principally, I paint in abstract where colour is primary feature. Although I do occasionally paint figuratively, many viewers identify figures, and in particular faces, in my abstract work which have emerged purely at a subconscious level. Regardless of figurative or abstract, my paintings are expressions of my emotions.

Chris Siems 

• “Poplars”
• 2021
• 12X16
• Acrylic & Resin on Canvas

I am a Toronto based artist working with acrylic on canvas. I am moved by colour and it has a tremendous impact on my sense of wellbeing.

• Website: www.chrissiems.com
• Instagram: @chris.siems

Cindy Y Lam 

• “My Melancholy M”
• Acrylic on Canvas
• 16×20

Painting grounds the restlessness in me. It helps me to reflect upon the passage of time and my relationships with people, animals, and nature. Current work is predominantly with acrylics on canvas, incorporating mixed media at times.

Cindy Y Lam 

• “Until we meet again”
• Acrylic on Canvas
• 12 x 12

Vacillating between representation and abstraction, with focus on expressive brushwork, I strive to capture the spirit and energy of the places and animals in my work.

David Brown

• “Untitled 13”
• From The Spatial Perception Series
• Encaustic on Panel
• 24”x18”

I approach the act of painting like a builder, using wax, spray paint, and print techniques to construct a multi-layered, multi-sensory experience. I am interested in observing, collecting, and reflecting the visual cacophony of metropolitan life.

Encaustic paint has become an integral part of my process. Beeswax is an organic material with a strong personality. The range of qualities, surfaces, and textures it can yield is unmatched by any other painting material. The wax and I have formed a partnership, it tells me where and how to proceed as I guide and tease the molten medium.

David Brown

• “Untitled 16”
• From The Spatial Perception Series
• Encaustic on Panel
• 24”x18”

In my paintings, layers of wax are painstakingly piled on top of acrylic washes, oil, and spray paints. Surface depth accumulates by weaving organic and geometric shapes, rendered in positive and negative form, through different levels. The final result is a thin sculpture with fragments of long-forgotten messages resonating through.

I think of my work as internalized landscapes that reflect the experience of living in Canada’s largest urban center — an encapsulation of all the daily sensory bombardments of the city. I strive to represent time and space, sight and sound, in a quiet loudness.

Mikael Sandblom

• “Between Clouds and Waves”
• Jacquard tapestry & archival print on aluminum
• 17″ x 41″ framed
• 2021

A white bird glides
Over reflected clouds
Suspended

Instagram | Website

Mikael Sandblom

• “Rain”
• Jacquard tapestry & archival print on aluminum
• 17″ x 41″ framed
• 2021

Sky reflected in glass
Reflected in water
Dissolved in rain

Instagram | Website

Elizabeth Greisman

• “Untitled 16”
• From The Spatial Perception Series
• Encaustic on Panel
• 24”x18”

In my paintings, layers of wax are painstakingly piled on top of acrylic washes, oil, and spray paints. Surface depth accumulates by weaving organic and geometric shapes, rendered in positive and negative form, through different levels. The final result is a thin sculpture with fragments of long-forgotten messages resonating through.

Elizabeth Greisman

• “Elaine 1″
• oil on paper
• 24”x36”
• 2021

I think of my work as internalized landscapes that reflect the experience of living in Canada’s largest urban center — an encapsulation of all the daily sensory bombardments of the city. I strive to represent time and space, sight and sound, in a quiet loudness.

Gerda Wekerle

• “Flying Upwards”
• 30×30 inches
• Acrylic

In recent years, my art has shifted from landscapes to emphasize the rapid changes in the physical form of Toronto, especially the technologies of construction cranes and pile drivers that fracture and reconstruct the city. Initially I was drawn by the negative spaces, lines and shapes formed by intersecting construction cranes towering over commercial strips.

Gerda Wekerle

• “Thirteen Triangles”
• 30×30 inches
• Acrylic

I fantasized that the pile drivers in myriad colours were open-mouthed gigantic dinosaurs reconfiguring urban lots. The human presence was implied: the hidden operators of these gigantic machines and the financiers that initiated and benefitted from the ever higher and more profitable buildings. In my most recent painting, Flying Upwards, the black building demanded the drawing of an aspiring young woman juxtaposed against the ovoid crane creating an even taller luxury building. These paintings link to my background as an urbanist who writes about cities.  

Gert Anckaert

• “Spring lilac”
• 12×16
• wood panel
• mixed media

The panels are a reflection-collection, of collage and color accumulated over 5 years of living close to the elements, close to nature.

Gert Anckaert

• “fire & forests”
• 12×16
• wood panel
• mixed media

The Spring of 2020 led me to a deeper bond to the earth, as i walked across fields, on beaches, in forests, always alone, through our covid lockdowns and limited social connections. In that solitude i felt deeply supported and nourished by the natural world. They are also a dive into more abstract work, with references to the landscape, but not depicted purely.

Gwen Tooth

• “Black and Gold No. 5”
• 10 x 10 inches
• Acrylic

I am an experimental expressionist painter in my practice, inspired by the various bodies of water which I experience. I have completed several series of acrylic paintings revealing the moods and energies of water – whirlpools, waterfalls, and tsunamis, white water rapids and recently, Niagara Falls In Winter, achieved by applying paint layers, thick and thin, suggesting the destructive force and rugged beauty of the Canadian falls.

Gwen Tooth

• “Black and Gold No. 7”
• 10 x 10 inches
• Acrylic

My “Black and Gold” series is a group of acrylic paintings using gold dripping expressions on black backgrounds. Viewing these paintings evoke for me emotions and symbols of wealth, drama, mythology, and music through operas which include “The Ring” series composed by Richard Wagner.

Hugh Alcock

• “By the Banks of the Rouge River, Spring“
• 60 inches x 72 inches
• pastel and charcoal on canvas
• 2020

The drawing depicts a scene along the Rouge River on the border between Scarborough and Pickering. It is spring. The recent thaw reveals a ground flattened and blanched by snow. New growth has yet to appear, but the atmosphere is pregnant with the promise of renewal.

Jacqueline Treloar

• “TTC Shelter“
• 32 x 39 framed
• acrylic on textured fabric
• $1,500

My painting is rooted in the concept of art as a documentation of personal experience of, and response to, the built, natural, and social environments. In my works I strive to capture the essence of a particular moment or period in a particular place, and to distill the essence of my emotional and intellectual relationship with that place at that time.

I have always been a draftsperson, and drawing remains a foundational feature of my work. My preferred format has generally been large, with a marked sense of colour, texture and strong graphics.  Images are documentations of my experiences with the world I choose to be around me. I paint in series or sets taking a concept and developing and building as I work.

I graduated from the Central School of Art and Design in London, England in 1970 with a bachelor’s degree in textiles and a Leverhulme Travelling Scholarship which permitted me to travel and take up apprenticeships in New York, Paris, and finally Como, Lombardy where I lived from 1972-1984 as a textile designer and studio owner travelling extensively within Europe and to New York. In 1984 I moved to Toronto, and in the period from 1987 to 2000 built large painted and layered fabric panels, most of which were exhibited publicly and several of which have won important awards. I returned to Canada after living and working in Palermo Sicily from 2000-2003.

My years living in Sicily have been the primary source of material since 2004, referring back to the years living in Palermo and addressing that very particular time and place and the mark it left upon me.  One present project, which to date has been the source of two exhibitions, started in fall 2007 and follows the Canadian soldiers as they fought their way from the south west to the centre north of the island in the summer of 1943. Treating the Sicilian landscape as a physical record of the collective histories that have transpired on the terrain, my images make visible the echoes of past conflicts.  I use colour, impasto and cross-hatching to replicate the accumulation of events and memories, bringing to life a complex and layered history.

Janne Reuss

• “Day Break“
• 90 x 72 cm
• Overpainted Photographs
• 2020

My body of work is titled Rewriting the Story and evokes a sense of transformation: White paintbrushes move through my previously constructed photomontages… covering, hiding, integrating and dancing between layers and shapes, in order to create new inner landscapes and imaginary spaces.

Janne Reuss

• “Lunar Gathering“
• 72 x 90 cm
• Overpainted Photographs
• 2019

With every brushstroke I’m trying to rewrite the story from the past in order to search for a new truth. In this process I’m confronted with memories and longings at the same time. The idea of freedom and search for belonging permeate like a red thread through my work.

• www.artjanne.com
• IG @jannereuss

jerome austin mcnicholl

• “Queen“

My art practice is autobiographic in nature, thus when I paint-write-dance-sing I am plugged into the spark and clutter of my own psychic and there I find a tunnel into a seemingly endless unconscious sea that connects me to a larger more inclusive self– ‘you have to go in, to go out’.

jerome austin mcnicholl

I identify with the practice of the ‘mystic contemplative mind’ that experiences life as inner directed – non dual – holding and balancing our tensions and contradiction and *“seeing not with, but through the eye,” life – as continuously revealing its secrets and rich earthly beauty.

The idea of an ‘incarnated world’, where ‘mater incarnates the vitality of spirit’ one vitalized by the other has been part of cultures the world over. It allows for us to see afresh the true aliveness of our earth planet: never more needed than today.

Joan Haberman

• “Dancing Water No. 2”

Dancing Water, No. 2 shows the water closer to the shore, on a day with sun peeking out from behind cloud cover.  Shadows hang over the area nearest the shore, so it is darker, but you can see where the sun becomes to come through and brighten the scene.  There was a continuous gentle wind blowing across the water that day, causing the water to move rhythmically, as soft gentle waves hit low peaks and moved on to repeat their show. This repeat motion created a visual vibration, buffered by the rocky shoreline.

Joan Haberman

• “Just around the Bend“

Just around the Bend, depicts a walk along a path towards a megalithic site in the Alentejo region of Portugal.  The path was uneven, sinking towards the middle, and the wire fence intended to keep us out of the fields was in a state of disrepair, such that that heavy shrubs it was attempting to hold back on the left threatened to burst through. The day was very hot, though it was already October, but that bend ahead was beckoning – this moment, frozen in time in the painting, captures us at a time of heightened expectation. What would we find when we turned the corner? 

Joanne Shenfeld

• “The End of the Road I“
• Mixed Media on Paper
• 12×12
• $125 each, includes frame (19×19)

While hiking some years ago, I came across a rusted and decomposing car deep in the woods. Although it was dismaying to see this thoughtlessly junked waste degrading the environment, at the same time there was something intriguing about the way it had started to become part of the landscape and be taken over by the forest growth. These mixed media pieces are an attempt to capture the joining together of the car and nature using photo transfers, collage, paint and drawing.

Joanne Shenfeld

• “The End of the Road II”
• Mixed Media on Paper
• 12×12
• $125 each, includes frame (19×19)

• Website: www.joanneshenfeld.weebly.com  
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joanne_shenfeld/

Joanna Black

• “Self Portrait During COVID-19″
• 2020-2021
• 8” X 5.5”
• digital new media work.

Self-Portrait During COVID-19 is a ‘time-capture’ of 2020-2021 living in Winnipeg, Canada during the pandemic. Not just in the prairies but elsewhere COVID-19 came in waves during the first and successive years throughout the world. New familiarities, practices, encounters, lived through understandings during the period are insnared in the new media digital work. Experiences of COVID’S undulations are captured wherein our lives are affected by number counts, by technologies, through distances, by remoteness, by fog, and through isolation.

John Ferri

• “GREY IN A BLUE MOMENT”
• Digital Composite, archival print face mounted to plexiglass
• 36″H x 36″ W  
• edition of 6  
• 2020

John Ferri is a Toronto-based digital artist. His art combines elements of photography, collage and graphic design to create a unique visual perspective that balances precision, whimsy and a fascination with human movement. John’s work can embody both simple, minimalist compositions as well as multi-layered imagery suffused with bright, bold colours. However, each work is infused with a single, consistent vision: the interplay of people in constructed spaces, real or imagined.

John Ferri

• “OFF CENTRE”
• Digital Composite, archival print face mounted to plexiglass
• 36″H x 36″ W  
• edition of 6  
• 2018

The intent is to capture the forces that shape, direct and sometimes overwhelm the human form. Themes of solitude, dignity and the search for significance are central.

• Website: https://www.johnferri.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jferri/

Jose Cifuentes

• “Truth”
• 30 x 40
• 2021

Let my work be known for manifesting varied visual representations of freedom, these unexpected paintings are a mixture of thick knife strokes with free-hand illustrations on canvas and recycled surfaces.

Jose Cifuentes

• “Abstract Art”
• 30 x 40
• 2021

I collect and portray moods that are in vivid, visceral paint strokes, loose lines, deliberate drips and passionate splatters using a combination of media including acrylics, oils, spray paint, markers and things gathered from all around. All this to the novel end of creating an unconventional marriage of fine and urban art.

Julie Vetro

• “Arctic”
• 2018
• Vintage Coleman Lantern, miniature hiker figurine, landscape materials
• 5 x 5 x 12

Julie Vetro is an interdisciplinary artist. Sound and music are key components in her artistic practice. Vetro examines how music and sound strengthen the details in our memories. She utilizes miniature figurines, vintage materials, musical instruments, musical cognition, perception and appreciation in her work.

Julie Vetro

• “Northwest Coast“
• 2018
• Vintage Coleman Lantern, miniature hiker figurine, landscape materials
• 5 x 5 x 12

• Website: julievetro.com
• Instagram: Soundavet

Leena Raudvee

• “Masked Precarity #3“
• 22 x 17
• Ink drawing

Masked Precarity #3 is part of a series of drawings that has emerged out of a daily drawing practice from the last year and a half of pandemic anxieties and isolation. It is superimposed, by necessity, on ongoing issues of vulnerability, disability and the precariousness of severely limited mobility.

As internal self-portraits, these drawings respond to changes in Raudvee’s emotional and physical body, as body in process, and become records of the evolving dis-eased body. They are reflections on a strangely hybrid identity, attached to walking aids and no longer wholly human.

Marie Finkelstein

• “Deep End 10″
• 48 x 36 inches
• oil on canvas

I am a Toronto painter who works primarily in oil on canvas and wood. I have exhibited in solo and group shows in Toronto, Whitby, Orillia and Ottawa, and was a finalist in the 2005 Kingston Portrait Prize Competition. In 2009, I appeared as one of the selected artists on the Bravo! Television series, Star Portraits. I completed a major commission of four paintings for the permanent collection on display at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto in 2011. I studied art in Montreal, where I was born and raised, and Banff, Boston and Toronto.

Marie Finkelstein

• “Palm Beach 25“
• 40 x 30 inches
• oil on canvas

One of my recurring interests in my practice is in exploring the qualities and effects of light, and transitions from shadow. This has taken on new meaning for me not only in my personal life, but as a metaphor for the Covid experience, as we seek to emerge from the darkness of this crisis and return to the brightness of the world we once knew.

• http://www.mariefinkelstein.com/index.html

Mirren Hinchley

• “Cosmic”
• 36×36
• $1300
• Abstract, acrylic with gel on canvas with gloss finish

I am a Toronto, abstract, non-objective, acrylic painter who has been painting for the last 5 years. My works have not only been displayed in Toronto gallery shows but also online galleries in Milan and the UK with enquiries from Spain and Crete.

Mirren Hinchley

• “Line of Least Resistance 5”
• 30×40
• $1200
• Abstract, acrylic on black canvas with gloss finish

My paintings reflect my love for bright, bold colors. I use a variety of painting techniques to make my works dynamic. My style and technique vary with each painting. The bolder they are the better! I want my paintings to be unique, to make a statement, to draw and hold the viewers’ attention and provoke discussion.  

• Website –  https://mirrenhinchleyart.com
• Instagram – https://www.instagram.com//artbymirren

Pam Patterson

• “At Dawn’s Studio: Triptych”
• 30″ H X 30″ W 
• black & white photography 

I grasp meaning reflectively. As such, I am interested in phenomenologically observing objects and self in evocative environments. This speaks to my need to touch, to see, and to hear. These environments need not be complex. In Dawn’s Studio:Triptych records, in objects, a meeting at an artist’s studio and Kyra Feena is a close-up of my cat’s deliciously furry belly. The series Pleasure decodes for me another language…, of which these works are a part, evokes situations where I restory myself through a narrative of transformation. I dialogically observe both in the viewing and in the making the relationship between what I know and what I am coming to know mindfully, expressively, and intuitively.

Pam Patterson

• “Kyra Feena”
• 30″ H X 20″ W 
• black & white photography 

I have constructed each as an open work in movement. As Umberto Eco notes: “[T]he ‘openness’ or dynamism of a work consists of factors which make it susceptible to a whole range of integrations…” Each work has infinite aspects and hence invites the exploration of different perspectives. This is a process for me of integrating subjective knowledge with artistic ambiguity. It is exceptionally pleasurable.

Paul Kilbertus

• “Congolese Policeman”
• 17 inches by 24 inches
• $100

I seek to capture images, moments and sensations of our daily lives using an array of multimedia techniques and materials. I want you to join me at looking at the world from a different angle.

Paul Kilbertus

• “Congolese woman going for water”
• 17 inches by 24 inches
• $100

• website: pk2k.ca
• IG: paul_kilbertus

Ruth Hartman

• “Rock, Deception Island” 
• Acrylic on Canvas
• (36″x48″/91.4×121.9cm) 

Encountering a kindred spirit on Deception Island, in the South Shetlands off the Antarctic Peninsula.

• https://ruthhartman.ca/bio.html

Ruth Hartman

• “Beijing Blue” 
• Acrylic on Canvas
• (12″x24″/30.5×60.9cm) 

When I glimpsed this scene from a vehicle in 2000, I was struck by the woman’s solitude and the choice of graffiti in a population of billions.

In 2022, I feel instead our own isolation during a pandemic and the foreboding nature of numbers.

• https://ruthhartman.ca/bio.html

Sandra Franke

• “Global Warming 5”
• 20”  
• $250
• Mixed Media 

As a response to the Covid Pandemic, I started a series of paintings called Cosmos. This series reflects our need to understand our place in the Universe during these difficult times. These paintings are specifically exploring our relationship to the threat of Global Warming. This exploration can be made from the macro to the micro scale, from ocean warming to car exhaust. But these particular paintings focus on an emotional response to Global Warming, the ambivalence it creates, the fear, the awe, the beauty and sometimes the sheer helplessness.

Sandra Franke

• “Global Warming 7”
• 20”  
• $250
• Mixed Media 

Ultimately, it is hoped that they express a new found balance with nature. These paintings are mixed media, with pencil, pastel, spray paint and acrylic paint on canvas, with a modelling paste bas relief as a base. They are somewhat inspired by Paterson Ewan’s carved wood paintings of the Earth.

SHARON ERLICHMAN

• “Dusk”
• Acrylic on Canvas
• 24 x 36
• $1,200

The tension between representational and abstract and what emerges from it is what interests me as a visual artist. I am looking for the narrative in the details of my surroundings and trying to capture impressions as well as a sense of place in the moment.

The abstraction of the subject and the tactile nature of the medium are key focal points for me.  While the work of the abstract impressionists figure strongly in my outlook, I find inspiration and kinship in the works of the Automatiste movement that orginated in Quebec along with the work of Jean-Paul Riopelle.  Themes of renewal, nature and home, organically emerge in my work with a strong focus on colour and texture with multiple layers exhibiting the ongoing dialogue.

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SHARON ERLICHMAN

• “Laurentian Sunset”
• Acrylic on Canvas
• 24 x 36
• $1,200

My work has been exhibited at the Agnes Jamieson Gallery, Pearson International Airport and other local galleries in Toronto. My works can be found in private collections throughout the Greater Toronto Area, Quebec, and New York. Works range from paintings on canvas to outdoor murals on wood.  

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Affiliations

• Gallery 1313, Toronto, Ontario
• Gallery 44, Toronto, Ontario
• Partial Gallery  sharonerlichman.partial.gallery
• Saatchi Art Gallery  sharonerlichman/saatchigallery.com

Shawn Postoff

• “Orion“
• 2021
• 26″w x 48″h
• Vitreous glass, ceramic tile, slate, and findings on wood.

According to the Collins Gem Guide, Orion is “a magnificent constellation of the equatorial region of the sky, representing a hunter or warrior with his shield and club raised against the snorting charge of neighbouring Taurus the Bull.” Personally, I prefer a different version of Orion, in which he spends his long winters drifting through far more contemplative skies. With a nod to photographer Greg Gorman for the perfect pose.

Stephanie McLean

• “Afro-Cuban Woman With Cigar“
• 16”x20”
• Acrylic Paint and Gel Medium on Canvas

A former jazz vocalist and stage performer, this experience is a source of inspiration for my abstract portraiture paintings.

Stephanie McLean

• “Solace“
• 16”x20”
• Acrylic Paint and Gel Medium on Canvas

The energy and emotions many performers exude on stage or in rehearsals can be electric. I’m drawn to capturing that essence on canvas through bold use of colour and abstract realism/expressionism to help celebrate, “see” and feel this unique emotional energy.

Zoraida Anaya

• “Punto de Equilibrio” 
• 2021
• metal sculpture
• 30 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm
• Artist’s collection

My work speaks to the deficiency, excess and balance. Some have too much while others have too little.  I wonder when we will find a balance in the distribution of wealth. This sculpture was built using found metal. It is heavy. It balances itself in the two points that are not welded together. Physics keeps it standing and balanced. 

• www.zoraida-anaya.ca

Carolynn Bloomer       

• “Family Gatherings”
• Porcelain, bone china, gold leaf, paint, acrylic; painted wood frame.
• H 47.5 x W 30 cm x D 12 cm
• $750.

These are wall pieces that incorporate hand-modeled and cast porcelain objects with found items, real gold leaf, and paint.

Carolynn Bloomer       

• “Place Setting”
• Porcelain, ink, bone china, paint; painted wood base.
• H 45.72 cm x W 24.13 cm
• $650.

My juxtaposition of  “real” objects with mimicked ones intends to create a cabinet of curiosities where the concept of value is questioned, and the line between truth and beauty is blurred.

• website: carolynnbloomer.com
• Facebook: Carolynn Bloomer Ceramics
• Instagram: Carolynn Bloomer Ceramics

Catharine Somerville      

• “A Very Peri Blue”
• oil on canvas
• 28″ x 31″

I am a visual Canadian artist/explorer/plein air painter with studios both in the UK and Canada. This point encourages me to become aware of the interconnections of diverse cultures and places.

My work attempts a spontaneous/visceral bonding with meta- physical laws that are based on abstract reasoning. I strive to connect to the landscape by basing my work on the natural world with its tensions and vulnerability.  The finished product of my work is a by-product of the performative activity of painting. It is my intention to strive to create the reality of the canvas as an object rather than the illusion of the reality on the canvas.

Catharine Somerville      

• “Blue Cloud”
• 2019
• oil on linen
• 12″ x24″

Catharine considers all the arts as a witness to the reality of human experiences.

• www.catharinesomerville.com
• https://www.instagram.com/catharinesomervillewilson_art

Sonia Langer     

• “The X Factor”
• Oil on canvas
• 30″ X 40″

“STILL YET MOVING”

Despite the pandemic that has put so many parts of our lives on hold, we are still going places.

Sonia Langer     

• “Close Enough”
• Oil on canvas
• 30″ X 40″

Combined with my passion for the moody Toronto sceneries, and despite all the restrictions  it has been a real comfort to be able to isolate in the safety of my car and find a way to recreate what is still hanging beautifully around us.

Gilles Morin   

• “frag-men-ta-tion”
• the state of being broken into small or separate parts.

I had the idea when I read this from Wikipedia: 

“Fragmentation in multicellular or colonial organisms is a form of asexual reproduction or cloning, where an organism is split into fragments. Each of these fragments develop into mature, fully grown individuals that are clones of the original organism.”

Gilles Morin   

• “Sanctity”
• worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence.

Homage to Frontline workers

I did a series of digital paintings in response to the Covid19 situation by doing or imagining portraits of individuals.

How we are changed by the lockdown, the fear of getting the virus, the isolation, the internal struggle of the mask and vaccination for some, etc…

I see people as energy, emotional souls and pilgrim trying to make sense to something that does not.

Paul Brandejs   

• After the Sunset
• 47 x 51 x 5.25 inches
• Mixed Media; acrylic and photography on sculpted canvas.

My investigation into the tradition of Canadian art, the unadulterated beauty of the physical world, and resonating passing memory, results in an attempt to communicate the grandeur and fragility of nature.

• www.paulbrandejs-art.com
• facebook.com/PaulBrandejs
• instagram.com/paulbrandejs/