Informed by Di Leo’s point of view, the Aird’s online DRAWING 2023 project, performs as a contemporary compendium of mark-making that reflects on life’s transience by showcasing the drawings  by Dave Bagley,  Breanne Bandur, Bakaluca Biljana, Aimée Jeanne Bourgon, Elaine Carr, Alyson Champ, Linda Chen, Wendy Cooper-Parkinson, Nicola Cunningham, Lorraine Dagenais, Sylvie Daigneault, Jovana Djordjevic, Edward Donald, Marie Finkelstein, Gianni Giuliano, Jennifer Globush, Phyllis Gordon, David Griffin, Thomas Hendry, Sarah Hunter, Sonia Isabelle, Mark Johnson, Brian Kelly, Sima Kian, Rosalie Lam, Peter Max Lawrence, Oleg Lipchenko, Sue Lloyd, William Lottering, Ian Mackenzie, Carolanne MacLean, Brad McDermott, Laurel Mcleod, Carole Milon, Diane Morgan, Frank Mulvey, Hafsa Murtaza, Rita Naras, Alexandrea Nicholas-Jennings, Erik Nieminen, Robin Nyikos, Geoffrey Odgers, Pam Patterson, Michelle Peraza, Deb Percy, John Richer, Carla Gina Rubeo, Doug Russell, Shatilla/Sideleau (Somatic Rogue) Ian/Genevieve, Dabiri Soroush, Andrea Toma, Olga Uglova, Dana Velan, Lenka Vilhelmová, Voytek Voytek, Martha West Gayford, and Marnie White.

BIOGRAPHIES

Born in Italy, Giuseppe Di Leo received an Honour’s BFA from Concordia University in 1978 and shortly after completed a Master’s degree at York University, Toronto where he held his first solo exhibition at the Oakville and Gairloch Galleries, Ont. in 1980. Throughout his career, Di Leo has maintained a practice in drawing and watercolour and has participated in a number of exhibitions held in cultural institutions and private galleries in Canada, Italy, and Mexico. His drawings have been reviewed in various publications, and are featured in both museum and corporate collections including Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Loto-Quebec, Canada Council Art Bank, Collection Prêts d’oeuvres d’arts du Musée du Québec, Ministère des Communautés Culturelles et del’Immigration, Qué., Museo Civico d’Arte Contemporanea, Casacalenda, Italy. Over the last decade concurrent to his practice and teaching, he has been active as Director and curator of the Warren G. Flowers Art Gallery at Dawson College.

Important exhibition projects have included various solo and group exhibitions, at McBride Gallery, Mtl., Waddington and Gorce, Mtl; Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton, Ont.; Musée d’Art Contemporain des Laurentides, Qué; Musée du Québec; Justina Barnicke Gallery, University of Toronto; Cantieri Culturali alla Zisa, Palermo, Italy; Kalenarte, Casacalenda, Italy; Museo de las Bellas Artes, Guadalajara, Mexico.

Marina Doukas is a Canadian painter whose work is often colourful and vibrant and ranges from being thick and chaotic to blended and controlled. Her paintings explore themes of self-expression, perception, and the idiosyncrasies of identity and by bringing together abstract mark-making and contemporary portraiture. Pulling from her knowledge of gesture and abstraction, she treats the paint as a tool to record her experiences with navigating femininity and all of the moments of tension and discovery that may present themselves along the way. With the use of bright colours and various brush strokes, her paintings act as an ongoing investigation of individuality and prioritize authenticity and assertiveness of self through her explorations.

Doukas obtained her Bachelor of Arts, Honours in Studio Arts at the University of Guelph.

In addition to this exhibition, we asked our jurors to prepare a playlist of songs to accompany this year’s online juried exhibition.