Exhibitions & Fairs

Voyage

Katharine Burns | Main Gallery Exhibition 8 Nov - 7 Dec 2024 Embark on a captivating journey to the sea with "Voyage," an evocative art exhibition by acclaimed Nova Scotia artist Katharine Burns. In the midst of Toronto's urban landscape, Katharine's powerful seascapes in oil offer a mesmerizing escape to the ocean's edge. Raised on the rugged Atlantic coast, Katharine brings the essence of the sea to life in her large-scale paintings, capturing the intricate dance of waves, the shimmer of sunlight on water, and the raw power of the ocean. "Voyage" invites you to experience the serenity and strength of the sea, reconnecting you with the distant shores that call to the soul, just beyond the city's horizon. Let this exhibition be your passage to the tranquil yet mighty waters that inspire awe and contemplation. Read more

Lustre of Cobalt

Ethan Platt | Project Gallery Exhibition 8 Nov - 7 Dec 2024 ‘Lustre of Cobalt’ positions the human figure within contemporary societal landscapes, utilizing cobalt as a central element. Extracted from the Earth, cobalt serves diverse roles from powering electronic devices, to adorning art alongside its dual nature capable of energizing or endangering the body. This metal's multifaceted significance is symbolically and aesthetically integrated into the exhibition's hyper-synthetic compositions, reflecting our modern position in the ongoing narrative of existence. Read more

Antidotes for Yearning

Emily Pope | Feature Gallery Exhibition 8 Nov - 7 Dec 2024 In Antidotes for Yearning, Pope examines the instinctual urge to ward off the inevitable despite our guaranteed decay. Through symbolic imagery, she highlights the quiet absurdity of resisting mortality—a condition deeply woven into contemporary culture. In a world ever more detached from spiritual traditions, these paintings reflect a need for self-reliance in the making of new rituals and acceptance of reality.

The exhibition invites viewers to reflect on the small acts and illusions we use to ease the passage of time, questioning what we choose to preserve and why. Each piece offers a personal antidote, all together underscoring the futility of our resistance. Read more

Perfect Days

Group | Main Gallery Exhibition 11 Oct - 2 Nov 2024 Abbozzo Gallery is pleased to present Perfect Days, a group exhibition of work by represented artists. This collection of paintings and photography includes pieces that are contemplative, filled with emotion and embody an appreciation for shifts in nature, the movement of urban landscapes and the tenderness of relationships. From season to season in rural Ontario, downtown Toronto and household interiors, fragments of everyday life are beautifully captured by each of these artists.

This theme was inspired by the Japanese film of the same title, Perfect Days. Read more

When the mud settles

Hayley Chiu | Feature Gallery Exhibition 11 Oct - 2 Nov 2024 Hayley Chi Hay Chiu’s self portraits explore identity and her relationship with the self through fragmentation and layering to create dream-like stories. Using painted collages as a tool to narrate her experiences as a Chinese woman born and raised in Canada, she draws from her memories and Chinese folklore, situating herself in surroundings that she influences and is influenced by, to build a mythology distinct to herself. In her newest body of work, her paintings evoke feelings of slowness and quietness, and embrace her fear of uncertainty. Accepting what she doesn’t understand, practicing patience for things outside of her control, and longing for the impossible while finding love in the attempt. She asks the viewer: “Do you have the patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear?” Read more

Living Algae Cyborg: Interactive Installation

Vladimir Kanic | Nuit Blanche 2024 5 Oct 2024 If you could talk to a microcosm, what would you ask it? “Living Algae Cyborg” is an interactive installation that enables audiences to communicate with algae microorganisms, while creating a bridge for dialogue and cultural exchange between species. Read more

SWAB Barcelona: Contemporary Art Fair

Alex R.M. Thompson and Alicia Gimeno | Fira de Barcelona 3 - 6 Oct 2024 Swab is an independent art fair and experimental platform for emerging artistic proposals born in 2006.
Founded by architect and collector Joaquín Diez-Cascón, Swab is an event that brings together up to 80 galleries from the international scene and functions as a meeting point for the cultural sector on a global scale.
With 15 editions under its belt, the fair faces 2024 while maintaining its mission of supporting the spaces and disciplines that are changing the course of the art scene. This edition will take place from October 3 to 6, 2024. Read more

Holding Still

Olex Wlasenko | Main Gallery Exhibition 6 Sep - 5 Oct 2024 My studio production focuses on a personal and investigative discourse surrounding drawing’s relationship to lens based media (i.e. photography, cinema) in modern culture.

I use only one tool—my index finger. I manually rub the pigment or powdered charcoal into the surface of the paper. This technique gives the most dexterity and somehow the warmth of the hand transfers to each drawing.

Inspiration is teased from the pages of history or reels of film. The images I draw from surface from the vast well-spring of historical sources. These can be vintage visual documents such as books, archives or old movies. This fascination with cinema stems from my upbringing. My father was an avid collector of Ukrainian cinema. Read more

Cora Brittan

Project Room Exhibition 1 - 31 Aug 2024 Read more

Bossa in House

Fabiana Salomão | Main Gallery Exhibition 12 Jul - 24 Aug 2024 Fabiana Salomao’s Bossa in House seamlessly blends modernism with the vibrant spirit of bossa nova, celebrating the “new wave” of samba and jazz that emerged from Rio’s Copacabana in 1956. This exhibition captures the movement that influenced art, music, design, and architecture, reflecting a romantic, carefree lifestyle. Using acrylic on wood, Salomao emphasizes simplicity, functionality, and harmony. Her work draws inspiration from Bauhaus and the Neo-Concretism of Brazilian art, creating a unique fusion of historical and contemporary influences. Read more

Recovering My Humanity

Heather Horton | Feature Gallery Exhibition 7 Jun - 6 Jul 2024 'Recovering My Humanity' is a collection of recent work by Heather Horton. Painting for Heather is often a cathartic experience, allowing her to work through intense emotions. This imbues her work with a profound vulnerability which results in an oeuvre characterised by a deep and varied emotional range. Read more

A Semblance of Place

Alex R.M. Thompson | Main Gallery Exhibition 7 Jun - 6 Jul 2024 Edmonton based print artist Alex R.M. Thompson presents his first solo exhibition in the main gallery, A Semblance of Place. Predominantly working through copperplate etchings, Thompson explores the permanence of change in urban landscapes, inviting the viewer to explore darkly Romantic cityscapes, winding between crumbling brick walls, through yawning arches, and into incomplete apartment blocks. Read more

Enchanted Journeys of Desire

Nika Belianina | Contact Photo Festival | Project Room Exhibition 10 May - 1 Jun 2024 In her third exhibition with Abbozzo Gallery but first solo-feature, Nika Belianina, a mid-career artist and seasoned filmmaker, brings a surrealist twist to her cinematic photography.

Belianina's series explores themes of self-discovery and desires, presenting enchanted characters on transformative journeys. Using in-camera techniques, she creates a cinematic atmosphere filled with magic and introspection. Belianina's work invites viewers to craft their own narratives for the characters she portrays, opening a gateway to a world where inner desires and dreams come to life. Read more

City in Motion

Matthew Stephenson | Contact Photo Festival | Feature Gallery Exhibition 10 May - 1 Jun 2024 In his first exhibition with Abbozzo Gallery, emerging artist Matthew Stephenson, will be exhibited in the Feature Gallery. Having lived in cities such as Toronto, Sydney, Hong Kong, and Vancouver, Stephenson's photography captures the essence of urban life and architecture.

With a distinct and keen eye for line, and patterned colour within architectures big and small, Stephenson invites us to contemplate the beauty of the seemingly mundane and anonymous buildings of upward sprawling metropolises. His work seamlessly integrates landscapes, people, and streetscapes, revealing the vibrancy and energy of city environments. Through his lens, Stephenson tells stories of human connections and the constant evolution of the urban landscape. Read more

Expressions of Water

Arnold Zageris | Contact Photo Festival | Main Gallery Exhibition 10 May - 1 Jun 2024 In his fourth solo exhibition at Abbozzo Gallery, Arnold Zageris brings his expertise in nature photography to the Main Gallery, emphasizing the beauty and intricacy of water in its many forms.

Zageris has built a career photographing and documenting nature's harshest environments from the Labrador to the Antarctic and Iceland. For the last three years he has explored the visual qualities of water, capturing its reflections and refractions with a focus on the role of shutter speed and colour in composition. His images delve into the tranquil and dynamic aspects of water, inviting viewers to appreciate the delicate balance between stillness and movement. Read more

When the Time Comes

Brian Harvey 5 Apr - 4 May 2024 We're thrilled to welcome back Brian Harvey for his third solo exhibition at Abbozzo Gallery. Harvey's chosen subject, the everyday fabric of Toronto's streets, corners, and locales, produces a universal, familiar effect - that feeling of deja vu or that sense of "I swear that is just by my house" - that is felt by viewers far outside the bounds of Toronto itself.

This exhibition, 'When the Time Comes,' is particularly strong, demonstrating Harvey's technical ability as not only a painter but as a preserver of Toronto's ephemera, eulogizing the dog-eared diners, the industrial buildings that have long since closed, and the hyper-evolving landscape of the city itself. 'When the Time Comes' pays reverence to the inevitable slipping of time, while allowing us to stop the clock all together.
Read more

Celebrating Women Artists

Championing women artists since 1993 1 - 30 Mar 2024 Read more

Refuge

Leslie Norgate | Feature Gallery Exhibition 1 - 30 Mar 2024 "'Refuge' is both the physical space where I work and also the place I go to in my mind when I’m painting. It is a feeling of mooring where I feel safe to bring forth my voice. In that sense, all my shows could be called “refuge”, but this show takes its title from the large painting that depicts a darkened bedroom on a hot afternoon, a calm oasis of the everyday kind we all need to find peace and rest." Read more

Form Through Colour

Naoko Matsubara 26 Jan - 30 Mar 2024 A selection of work by Naoko Matsubara centered on the artist's intricate use and understanding of form and colour; currently displayed in our Project Gallery. Read more

Girl Dinner

Emerging Artists Group Exhibition 26 Jan - 30 Mar 2024 This is Abbozzo Gallery’s second annual group exhibition comprised of both local and international emerging artists. In preparation for this exhibition, our team was inspired by the emergence of girl trends that started within the realm of social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram and eventually crept into real life during the second half of 2023.

Our ambition for this exhibition is to give emerging artists a platform to share their intimate experiences of girlhood through their practice. The combination of artists and mediums in this group exhibition is meant to echo the delightful varieties that make up a quintessential girl dinner. Read more

Foundations

23 Jan - 14 Feb 2024 Abbozzo Gallery is thrilled to be participating once again in this iteration of Artsy’s Foundations Fair and are pleased to present the works of Canadian emerging artists David Wilstermann and Jacob Freeman for this winter's booth. Read more

Remnants II

DesignTO Festival Exhibition 18 Jan - 24 Feb 2024 For DesignTO 2024, Victoria Chin and Olga Klosowski present 'Remnants II'. This new exhibition draws from an interest in exploring objects through form, space, and memory along with play with materials. They use clay, glazes, paper and plaster to record traces from original objects that inspire the forms. Read more