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.
Solo & Two-Person Exhibitions
2026 Youngplace 180 Shaw Hallway Gallery, October exhibition with Piera Pugliese, Toronto, Canada
2017 Loop Gallery, ‘Measured Calm,’ Toronto, Canada
2013 Loop Gallery, ‘Disfluency and Delay,’ Toronto, Canada
2012 Loop Gallery, ‘False Relations and Fractions,’ Toronto, Canada
2011 Loop Gallery, ‘Empirical Spaces,’ Toronto, Canada
2008 AWOL Gallery, ‘hush,’ Toronto, Canada
Group Exhibitions
2026 MacLaren Art Centre, ‘Benefactor Art Exchange Exhibition,’ Barrie, Canada
2026 fabhaus Art Gallery + Fare, ‘Open Haus,’ inaugural exhibition curated by Noella Upitis, Blyth, Ontario, Canada
2025 Gladstone House, ‘Intuition,’ curated by Lee Petrie, Toronto, Canada
2024 Summer & Grace Gallery, ‘Joy III Holiday Exhibition,’ Oakville, Canada
2023 Aird Gallery, ‘ABSTRACTS’ online exhibition, curated by Gary Evans, Toronto, Canada
2020 Curated Toronto Art, ‘Curated’ online art sale, operated by Shari Orenstein and Hesty Leibtag, Toronto, Canada
2020 Canadian Art in Isolation, project providing artwork to seniors living in publicly funded long-term-care residences, artwork selected by Margaux Smith and Tatum Dooley for Castleview Wychwood Towers Long Term Care Home, Toronto, Canada
2019 Loop Gallery, ‘loop at large,’ Toronto, Canada
2019 AWOL Collective, ‘it’s not me, it’s you,’ Toronto, Canada
2019 Earls Court Gallery, ‘Pigments,’ curated by Aurora Cacioppo, Hamilton, Canada
2019 918 Bathurst, ‘Solstizio,’ A Celebration of Italian-Canadian Culture, Toronto, Canada
2019 MacLaren Art Centre, ‘Benefactor Art Exchange Exhibition,’ Barrie, Canada
2017 Gladstone Hotel, ‘Why The @#&! Do You Paint?: All the Colours,’ curated by Spencer J. Harrison and Lukus Toane, Toronto, Canada
2017 Orillia Museum of Art & History, ‘Carmichael Canadian Landscape Exhibition: Tradition Transformed,’ curated by Scott Sawtell and Renee van der Avoird, Orillia, Canada
2017 TA2 Sound & Music, Toronto, Canada
2017 Loop Gallery at 50 Edwin Ave, ‘Anxious Space: An Offsite Exhibition,’ curated by Salena Barry, Toronto, Canada
2017 Capital One North York Office, ‘A Natural Complex,’ curated by Kelly McKenzie, Toronto, Canada
2017 Gallery 555, ‘Day Trip: A Group Painting Exhibition,’ Toronto, Canada
2017 Art Gallery of Mississauga, ’14th Annual Fine Art Auction Exhibition,’ Mississauga, Canada
2017 MacLaren Art Centre, ‘Benefactor Art Exchange Exhibition,’ Barrie, Canada
2017 Propeller Gallery, ‘Live Longer, Piss Off Your Heirs,’ curated by Olga Korper and Taiga Lipson, Toronto, Canada
2016 Station Gallery, ‘Glimpse,’ juried by Kelly McCray, Steven Schwartz and Shelagh Stewart, Whitby, Canada
2016 Forest City Gallery, ‘Keepers,’ curated by Jenna Faye Powell, London, Canada
2016 Loop Gallery, ‘Sweet Summer Sixteen,’ Toronto, Canada
2012 Loop Gallery, ‘Collective Vision,’ Toronto, Canada
2007 Junction Arts Festival, ‘flock,’ Toronto, Canada
2003 Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto, Canada
2003 Joseph D. Carrier Gallery, ‘Identità,’ curated by Flavio Belli, Columbus Centre, Toronto, Canada
2002 Glenhyrst Art Gallery of Brant, ‘Identità,’ curated by Flavio Belli, Brantford, Canada
2002 Circa Gallery, ‘Form,’ Toronto, Canada
2002 Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto, Canada
2001 Junction Arts Festival, Toronto, Canada
2001 Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto, Canada
2000 Leeds University, Bretton Hall College, ‘Degree Exhibition: bonds/boundaries/barriers,’ Yorkshire Sculpture Park, West Bretton, UK
Projects
2026 I AM HANDS, Album Art Commission for Owen Gillham’s forthcoming release titled I AM HANDS, Essex, UK
Residencies
2024 Gladstone House, Resident Artist Program, Toronto, Canada
Auctions
2017 Art Gallery of Mississauga, ’14th Annual Fine Art Auction,’ Mississauga, Canada
Public Collections
Capital One, Toronto, Canada
Donovan Collection at the University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto, Canada
Microsoft Canada, Toronto, Canada
Awards
2004 Board of Governors Achievement Award, Humber College
2004 Academic Award of Excellence, Humber College
2001 Continuing Student Scholarship, York University
1999 Canadian Italian Business & Professional Association Scholarship, BCI Bank of Italy
1999 Susan Mann Award for Academic Exchange, York International
1999 Tuition Scholarship for Academic Exchange, York International
1996 Vicki Greenberg Art Award, Etobicoke School of the Arts
1996 OAC, Visual Art Scholarship Award, Etobicoke Board of Education
1994 Photography Achievement Award, Etobicoke School of the Arts
Education
2004 Postgraduate Certificate, Arts Administration & Cultural Management, Humber College
2001 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Specialized Honours, Visual Arts (Studio), York University
2000 Exchange program: BA Fine Art Program, Leeds University, UK, via York International
1998 Experimental Processes in Photography, Ontario College of Art & Design University
1996 O.A.C., O.S.S.D., Visual Arts Major, Etobicoke School of the Arts