Exhibitions at the Public Art Centre take place in our Gallery ONE, TWO and THREE. Tours are free of charge and can be organized in advance for school and community groups. For more information please see Education Programs.


Current Exhibitions


An Interior Life

Johnnene Maddison

Gallery One & Two

May 1 to June 12, 2021

An archive of the pandemic period using the universal language of art.

Robin's Preserves

Robin Grindley

Gallery Three

May 1 to June 12, 2021

The late, great jazz singer Blossum Dearie referred to her music recordings as “my jams and jellies”.  That pretty much sums up how I view my work; not only homemade (and hopefully sweet), they are also colourful, and made from the heart. ~ Robin Grindley

To view Robin's work online visit here...


 


Upcoming Exhibitions


Andrés Villar Reconnaissance

June 19 to August 1, 2021

Gallery One & Two

Memory and history inform how we conceive of times to come. We exist double-faced, imagining futures that can deliver us from the past, even-or especially if- the past acquires the burden of a deceptively golden glow.  Discovery implies a certain amount of recollection or recognition, "What has been" channels the possibilities of "what will be."  Yet the past, as someone has said, is a foreign country, inaccessible and glimpsed only darkly in traces that time leaves in its wake.  Many of these traces , which are in all that surrounds us, whether we go, appear as ruins or debris.  Like spring with birdsong, they attest to a irrevocable loss.  Moving with hope into the future requires a careful reconnaissance of places and legacies so as to be aware of what is absent in the meshwork of our everyday  lives." ~ Andrés Villar




Collective Chemistry

June 19 to August 1, , 2021

Gallery Three

Cathy Horvath Buchanan

Jane Atkinson White

Alice Price Vermeulen

Heather Keating


The St. Thomas Elgin Public Art Centre is pleased to present, Collective Chemistry, a group exhibition featuring four local artists working with various media such as painting and collage. Focusing on their most recent works, the exhibition runs from June 19 to August 1, 2021 and will explore the relationship between the forms, themes, and techniques of this diverse range of contemporary artists.


Heather Keating is one of our long standing adult art instructors and an artist from St. Thomas.   She is known for her watercolour and mixed media paintings.  She creates local landscapes and those from around the world inspired by her travels.  She is a member of the Port Stanley Artist Guild and the St. Thomas Artist Guild.


Jane Atkinson White is a portrait artist creating colourful, representational works of art. She graduated from the University of Western Ontario with her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1983. After graduating, her focus was on painting. She became known for her large acrylic portraits and exhibited her work in numerous juried and solo art shows throughout Southwestern Ontario.

Jane lives in Belmont, Ontario, with her husband and daughter. Her work is in private art collections throughout Ontario and the United States.


Alice Price-Vermeulen "I have always done art in some form or another. More recently, since relocating to St. Thomas, I have been exploring Mixed Media, using mediums to provide texture and certain affects in my paintings, whether oil or acrylic. As well, I have been exploring the medium of Collage, which is helpfully nurtured through the London group I belong to "Collage Collective''.

My style is my own and often I have a canvas or panel before me with no idea what I am about to paint, but it is a  fascinating process of intuitive exploration that makes my work uniquely my own, and often a happy surprise! I love colour and some of my work is more colourful than others, but colour always weaves it's spirited way throughout my work." ~ Alice Price-Vermeulen


Cathy Horvath-Buchanan is a Canadian artist living in the charming town of Port Stanley, Ontario, on the shores of Lake Erie, along with her husband Shawn & dog Patches.

The art she creates is the product of her years at art school, practical experimentation and quiet observation. Over time her art has evolved to become a unique amalgamation of colorful folk art as seen through the lens of a graphic, realistic style. Having started with landscape painting, she has been expanding her subject matter to encompass art themes suitable for licensing.

Cathy is always amazed how putting color to canvas can absorb and convey a lifetime spent looking. To her, a beautifully rendered colorful image is a joy to create and even more joyful to share. She takes great pride in creating artworks filled with bright happy colors to cheer your heart and home.



Past Exhibitions


Preservation : Caring for a Collection

Recent Acquisitions

November 21 to December 19, 2020

Gallery One and Two

In over 50 years of its existence the St. Thomas-Elgin Public art Centre has amassed one of the most significant collections of local and regional artworks of paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, and photographs. From the beginning with the purchase of Clark McDougall’s, Talbot Street 1964, the collection has grown to more than 2000 works today.

During the lockdown brought on by the pandemic, the duty to protect our important collection has occurred behind the scenes. These works are vulnerable to pests, changes in temperature and exposure to light all of which demands constant vigilance. This preservation has been happening in large and small galleries and museums all around the world, in our own community and at the Public Art Centre.

Part of our commitment to preserving a community collection, Preservation : Caring for a Collection, Recent Acquisitions, will feature new works of art included in the permanent collection from 2019-20. The art works, all of which are donations, accentuate the continued importance of collectors and the preservation, in the development of the permanent collection.


Ting - Editorial Cartoons

Until April 10, 2021

Merle "Ting" Tingley was born in Montreal in 1921 and is recognized as one of southwestern Ontario’s most influential cartoonists. He joined the Army Signals Corps in 1942, and in 1943 became staff cartoonist for The Khaki, the Canadian army’s official bilingual magazine.

In 1947 he bought a used motorcycle and toured the country showing his portfolio to numerous editors, before, out of desperation, he took a job retouching photographs at the London Free Press. Ting's fortunes improved when an editor on that paper noticed a cartoon Ting had drawn of the mayor during the municipal election. The editor was impressed with the drawing and Ting become the resident editorial cartoonist at the London Free Press until his retirement in 1986.


The Public Art Centre has more than 100 works by Ting in our permanent collection. These works document an extraordinary career and the political and societal events (locally, nationally and internationally) from the 1940’s to the 1990’s.


UNMASKED: Portraits from the Collection

August 15 to September 26, 2020

Gallery ONE & TWO

Drawing from a collection of over 1900 works of art, UNMASKED: Portraits from the Public Art Centre’s collection, features  portrait works that explore how artists have chosen to portray themselves and their subjects. Created in all media, from plaster sculpture to oil painting, the works in this exhibition can inspire ourselves to see others with empathy and understanding.

As we are confronted each day with  mandatory mask regulations and social distancing rules many find it  difficult to connect with others.  So, we think this is an opportune time to reassess the significance of self-portraiture and portrait art in relation to our current time in  history. 

The exhibition contains examples of self-portraits, with Dorothy Stevens’, Untitled Self Portrait, c. 1940, that is rarely seen. It also includes works by Mackie Cryderman, Clark McDougall, Bob Bozak, Marion Long, Greg Curnoe, Kathleen Daly,  Gerald Pedros, Robert Reginald Whale, Norval Morrisseau and many more.

UNMASKED is curated by Laura Woermke, curator and Sherri Howard, program director at the Public Art Centre.  The exhibition will also include  self directed educational prompts to further develop your experience and exploration into the world of portraits.