Exhibitions

Birch Libralato is pleased to present a new exhibition of paintings by Cathy Daley. Noted for drawings, this new body of work continues her ongoing interest in line, gesture and texture in large and medium scale works painted in acrylic on canvas.

The paintings explore monochromatic and vivid colour contrasts in a variety of visual forms - narrative, referential and abstract.

Based on a mélange of interior, industrial and nature-based biomorphic forms as well as geometric lines, pattern and architecture the work investigates various methods of mark making and performative gestural processes.

In much of her work to date Daley has been preoccupied with cultural codes of the feminine, often embodied in the iconic shapes of dresses and other garments, either static or in swirling motion. The new work is a break from, yet contains, elements of continuity with past visual practices.

Cathy Daley lives in Toronto and has been exhibiting her work throughout Canada and internationally since 1980. She has shown in numerous public galleries and museums, artist run centres and commercial galleries including The Power Plant, The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, The Saidye Bronfman Centre, The Southern Alberta Art Gallery and the University of Toronto Art Centre and Mercer Union and Museum Dhondt Dhaenens in Belgium. Most notably, her work is in the collection of The National Gallery of Canada and The Art Gallery of Ontario as well as many other public institutions and private collections. Her work has received wide critical acclaim in numerous publications such as Art in America, BorderCrossings and Canadian Art Magazine. She has received awards from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council and the Bertolt Brecht Fund of Berlin. She is an Associate Professor at the Ontario College of Art and Design.