Paul Sloggett, AOCA, RCA, graduated from the Ontario College of Art in 1973 and was awarded a Teaching Assistantship Scholarship to work under the direction of Royden Rabinowitch chair of Experimental Art. Paul taught Drawing and Painting as an Assistant Professor at York University from 1977-1985.
He joined the College as a faculty member part time in 1978 and in 2001 became a full Professor of Art in Drawing & Painting. In addition to his teaching Paul is currently the Assistant Dean of the Faculty of Art in charge of curriculum planning and student advisor for Drawing & Painting , Printmaking and Photography.
In his professional practice has produced 26 solo exhibitions in Painting and site specific installations in New York City and in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Sarah Dufresne is an Abstract Expressionist artist with a Drawing & Painting degree from OCAD University. Born and raised in Thunder Bay, Dufresne completed her Honours Bachelor Degree in Psychology at Lakehead University. Dufresne uses her Psychology degree by expressing herself with a brush and canvas as an act of therapy.
Through drawing and painting courses at Lakehead University, Sarah was introduced to many opportunities to showcase her work in Thunder Bay. These opportunities included 2 collaborative exhibitions, 3 solo exhibitions, and 2 juried exhibitions. Other opportunities such as magazine features and local awards led her to pursue painting at a post-secondary level at OCAD University. In her years at OCAD, Sarah honed her Abstract Expressionist style and explored outside of her comfort zone. This experience at OCAD brought her more opportunities in the art community such as magazine features and a group show. She gained invaluable insight and connections during her time at OCAD which has propelled her into the next stage of her artistic career. The way that her work functions in the material world is an act of therapy unto itself. Dufresne seeks to heal herself and the viewer in the process of creating and showing her work.
The discovery of his true heritage and the culture that it carries now informs all of his art and especially his painting. His exhibition at Hatch Gallery will feature his most heartfelt exploration of imagery that tells the story that he has only begun to uncover. “My art is a continuation of my long way home,” Tom says. “It is my way of showing honour and respect to a culture that I’m just shaking hands with.” Since authenticity is Tom’s calling card in all things, his paintings are in the same vein of truth-telling, story-sharing and heart-stirring as his other art. As Tom states, “My truth was hidden from me – I was born a Mohawk baby, and finally I’m becoming a Mohawk man.”
Tony Urquhart began his career as a painter. Some of his earliest work includes landscapes such as Primavera, 1957. His association with Av Isaacs, the owner of the Isaacs Gallery (one of Toronto’s most cutting-edge art venues which emerged in the mid 1950’s). In 1956, Isaacs asked Urquhart to join his growing stable of artists, including Michael Snow, Joyce Weiland and Graham Coughtry. Urquhart had his first works shown at the Isaacs Gallery in Toronto when he was only 22. He also had a one-man show in January 1957 and a second in November of the same year with Isaacs. At the time, Urquhart’s influence was from Buffalo, directly from the New York Abstract Expressionists and in 1956 the influence of this movement was still new to the Toronto public.
Urquhart lived in Niagara Falls until September 1960 when he went to London to be the first artist-in-residence at the University of Western Ontario.
Urquhart stayed at the University of Western Ontario in a teaching capacity until 1972 when he joined the faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Waterloo, where he remained for three decades, retiring in 1999. Tony Urquhart was named to the Order of Canada in 1995. He is the winner of the 2009 Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts, and the CARFAC Outstanding Contribution Award.
Canadian artist Yechel Gagnon has created a distinctive visual language using wood to create carved custom-made plywood bas-reliefs with tinted and natural veneers. Her process consists of carving the surfaces, revealing an imagery that oscillates between abstraction and representation with those intrinsic to the material. This effect evokes a fictional landscape where land and sea appear before us, where cavernous spaces are excavated and sweeping valleys emerge. One perceives the work as an aerial perspective and then all of sudden the viewer is plunged into a terrestrial realm. An oscillation between the macro and the micro fluctuates before our eyes like fractals. It is the viewer’s interpretation that dictates the scale of what is being seen. These different viewpoints are similar to traditional Chinese painting where one can see many different perspectives intertwine all into one image. Much to many people’s surprise, Gagnon does not use any paint in her work; only wood, obtaining a personal language of mark making that is both sculptural and painterly.
Gagnon’s works have been exhibited in museums’ and galleries across the world. Her works have also been commissioned for diverse institutions such as universities, cultural and medical centres, places of worship and corporate milieu’s. Her inspirations include Abstract Expressionism, Chinese Classical painting, Japanese garden and architecture and the works of Lynda Benglis, Tara Donovan, Nancy Holt, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Pat Steir and Fabienne Verdier. She holds a Master of Fine Arts Degree (Studio Arts) from Concordia University in Montreal and an AOCAD with Honours in Drawing and Painting from the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto. Her public artworks and exhibitions have attracted frequent reviews by noted critics and curators. She is recipient of numerous grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, Conseil des arts de Longueuil and the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec who awarded her the prestigious CALQ Creator of the Year award. Gagnon’s works are represented in public, corporate and private collections. They include the National Art Museum of China (Beijing), 4 World Trade Center (New York), Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (Halifax), BMO Art Collection (Toronto), City of Montreal, Osler Hoskin & Harcour
