Ester Pugliese
Artist member since 2018
Toronto , Ontario
Ester Pugliese is a Toronto-based Canadian artist working in multi-layered mixed media painting, drawing, and installation. Her layered abstractions investigate the parallels between seeing and hearing, and explore the emotional and perceptual possibilities of landscape, memory, and form.
Pugliese earned a BFA (Specialized Honours) in Painting and Drawing from York University in 2001. She completed an intensive year of studio research in the BA Fine Art program at Leeds University in England, culminating in a public degree exhibition at Bretton Hall College, now the site of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. She holds a post-graduate certificate in Arts Administration and Cultural Management. Alongside her studio practice, she has held leadership and development roles within Toronto’s artist-run and nonprofit arts sector, including Director of Loop Gallery, Coordinator of the Untitled Art Awards, and Development Coordinator at Vibe Arts. She is the recipient of multiple academic and merit-based awards, including the Canadian Italian Business & Professional Association Scholarship and the Humber College Board of Governors Achievement Award.
Her work has been exhibited widely across Canada, including presentations at the Orillia Museum of Art & History, MacLaren Art Centre and the Glenhyrst Art Gallery of Brant. Her paintings are collected internationally and are held in public and corporate collections including the Donovan Collection at the University of St. Michael’s College, Capital One, and Microsoft Canada. Her work has been reviewed in The Globe and Mail, featured on ArtSync TV and included as a destination in the 2012 Canadian Art Gallery Hop.
Pugliese exhibited with loop Gallery between 2011 and 2019, and her work is currently available through Partial Gallery.
Work
Disfluency and Delay
Empirical Spaces
Teatro Olimpico (Vicenza), Palazzo Corvaja (Taormina), Shaw Street, ibex (diptych)
- Ester Pugliese
- 32" x 24" x 1"
- $1120 buy
Measured Calm
False Relations and Fractions
Inside the Studio
Q+A
What do you listen to when you work?
All kinds of music, but the ones I always come back to are Pedro the Lion, PJ Harvey, Sebadoh and Helium. Oh, and Art for Your Ear podcasts by the Jealous Curator. Loads of inspiration there!
When did you start making art, and why?
When I was eight I was so proud of a realistic labrador retriever I'd drawn. Around that time, I also got to watch my mom transform from a hobby artist into an accomplished painter. That, and majoring in Visual Arts at an arts high school. Knowing that art was my strength in those formative years shaped the rest of my life/career decisions.
Favourite medium
I began using charcoal on PVA on canvas at Leeds University in England. This felt like *my* medium. Since then I have scoured the store shelves for a similar substrate, with no luck. That process led me to working with acrylic and soft pastel in endless layers of washes and glazes.
What artists do you admire right now?
Gary Evans, Kathryn Bemrose, Hurvin Anderson. Also love the inimitable Cy Twombly, Joan Mitchell. Most recently I've discovered Rachel Ruysch and Richard Kuiper.
Coffees per day and from where
One - a decaf soy latte from The Hub Coffee House on Dovercourt.
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