Gallery Arcturus

Overview

Gallery Arcturus is a public, not-for-profit contemporary art gallery, and its permanent art collection consists of over 200 works including drawings, paintings, collages, photographs and sculptures made by notable North American artists including the photographer Simeon Posen, the Inuit art sculptor Floyd Kuptana, and the renowned artist, teacher, writer, and founder of the School of Reductionism, E.J. Gold. The artist-in-residence and curator of the gallery is Deborah Harris.

Since its inception, Gallery Arcturus has held many notable public exhibitions including Thomas Henrickson "Inner Mirror", E.J. Gold "Large As Life", Peter Banks "Emergence", Carol George "Asia Calling", Deborah Harris "Toward The One", Dominique Cruchet & Joan Cullen “Crossing the Great Waters”.

History

Gallery Arcturus was established in 1994 by The Foundation for the Study of Objective Art, a Canadian federally registered charitable organization, to provide members of the public with an opportunity to view and study works by contemporary North American artists free of charge and without commercial motives. The Gallery was first located in rented space on Parliament Street in Toronto. The Gallery began acquiring an extensive permanent art collection for display and study, starting with a significant purchase of works by members of the School of Reductionism in Grass Valley, California, including paintings by E.J. Gold, Della Haywood, Heather Valencia, Robert Trice and Kelly Rivera. The permanent art collection has continued to grow every year and now totals over 227 works of art.

In 1997, The Foundation for the Study of Objective Art purchased a 10,000 square foot heritage building located at 80 Gerrard Street East in downtown Toronto and renovated it to serve as the permanent location for the Gallery and its administrative offices. The Gallery Arcturus building in addition to being a heritage property was immortalized by the famous Canadian Group of Seven artist Lawren Harris in a painting from 1912 titled “Houses, Gerrard Street, Toronto”, now a part of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection.

Permanent art collection

The Gallery Arcturus permanent art collection includes the following artists: Dara Aram, Gisele Boulianne, William Caldwell, Peter Chung, Ed Cramer, Dominique Cruchet, Joan Cullen, Carol Currie and Stuart Leggett, Chris Dolan, Marie Fournier, Neil Fox, Camie Geary-Martin, Luke Gilliam, E.J. Gold, Jeremy Gordaneer, Christopher Griffin, Scott Griffin, Marni Grossman, Deborah Harris, Michael Hayes, Della Heywood, Lenka Holubec, Randy Hryhorczuk, Louis Irkok Jr, Olena Kassian, Floyd Kuptana, Dongmin Lai, Grabriel Lalonde, Chris Langstroth, Elaine Ling, Yousha Liu, Ruth Luginbuehl, Jorge Luna, Andrea Maguire, Larry Middlestadt, Sharon Naidos, Joachim Oepkes, Simeon Posen, Terri Quinn, Kelly Rivera, Wendy Rombough, Paul Saari, R.C. Trice, Heather Valencia, Susan Valyi, Francine Vernac, Irena Vormittag, Pamela Williams.

Exhibition spaces

Gallery Arcturus consists of five exhibit spaces: Genesis, Up North, E.J. Gold, Collage, and the Ascending Gallery. The Genesis Gallery is the space where artists are invited to create work in response to an inquiry initiated by artist-in-residence Deborah Harris. The Up North Gallery features landscape paintings and sculptures reflecting northern Canada, including sculptures by Floyd Kuptana. The E.J. Gold Gallery on the 2nd floor contains works from the permanent art collection including paintings, drawings, ceramics and books by Gold. The Collage Gallery adjoins this space with works by Deborah Harris and other artists currently working in collage. The Ascending Gallery on the 4th floor features works by photographer Simeon Posen and many of the gallery's collected artists. All of the galleries that make up Arcturus are open to the public.