September 1, 2023:
Glad to have a piece selected by juror Gary Evans for the Aird Gallery’s online project titled ABSTRACTS, including a slideshow and downloadable PDF publication. The project includes a foreword by the Aird Gallery director Carla Garnet, a Juror’s Response text by Gary Evans, and an introductory essay by Aird curatorial assistant, and the publication designer Kate Parkinson. The online slideshow was launched on the Aird Gallery’s website from September 1, 2023 remaining on view for two months. Following the online project, a downloadable PDF artbook will be archived on the gallery’s publication <http://airdgallery.org/publications/> page.
April 12, 2023:
I’m incredibly pleased to have completed a large commission for an interior designer. I believe this is the most involved and evolved piece I’ve completed to date.
December 15, 2022:
Thankful to Partial Gallery for facilitating the sale of a piece to a new client.
May 14, 2022:
Had a ton of fun designing the invitations, menus, place cards and signs for my sister’s wedding.
March 2021:
Working on a large commission, 20 x 60 inches.
October 2020:
Spending time teaching my little ones about art (and lots of other stuff!) in something we are calling “garage school” – an invention of necessity thanks to a global pandemic. Something I never knew I would enjoy!
27 July, 2020:
Excited to have my work on the helloart.com artist roster. helloart is a software startup that matches businesses with Toronto-area artists to exhibit and sell their work. When helloart partners with a new business, they discuss how many works of art the business would like to display and how much space they have to fill. The relevant information then goes into the helloart smart platform, which generates an assortment of artists from helloart’s roster. The helloart curators narrow down the findings and present the artists to the business partners, who then make a final choice of artwork they think suits the space best. The artwork is displayed at the partnering business for twelve weeks. When a potential buyer scans the helloart QR code on the art label next to an artwork at a business, it brings them to the product page, where they can purchase the artwork online. By scanning the QR code, the buyer will also be able to see other artworks by the exhibiting artist.
May 30, 2020:
Deeply humbled to have a painting included amongst works by so many of Toronto’s best artists in the inaugural show on ‘curated’ – a new online platform gallery dedicated to promoting and supporting Toronto artists and galleries, created by Shari Orenstein and Hesty Leibtag. curatedtoronto.ca
May 12, 2020:
Excited to have a painting shared by architect and art lover, Shari Orenstein on her Instagram account @shariorenstein. Over the past month and a half she has been promoting the work of Toronto artists via social media to support independent artists who have been impacted by the pandemic. Wonderful champion of art and artists.
May 8, 2020:
I’m honoured to be able to provide a painting to a senior living in a publicly funded long-term care facility in Toronto through an initiative called Canadian Art in Isolation. https://cdnartinisolation.format.com/ The initiative matches Toronto-based artists with seniors to provide works of art to be displayed in their room during their time in self-isolation due to COVID-19. They’ve now collected over 200 pieces for Fudger House residence and are working with their second LTC home, Castleview at Christie and Davenport.
March 29, 2020:
My studio plans for 2020 are changing quickly due to the impact of COVID-19. When my youngest child entered part-time daycare in January 2020, and with my eldest in Senior Kindergarten, my plan was to be able to devote large blocks of time in the studio again. With all of us sheltering in place, that plan has changed. Hoping to make more time soon, once we’ve settled into a new rhythm.
November 16, 2019:
Selected for volume 3 of T6: The Six Hundred, an online and print publication based out of Toronto, Canada. The print publication will be available in January 2020 at www.the600.ca.
September 12, 2019:
Selected for the fourth issue of Zanna Art Magazine, a new international art magazine from Bristol, UK, available at www.wearezanna.co.uk/shop
August 30, 2019:
Selected for the September 2019 issue of APÉRO, a juried and curated fine art publication from California. The catalogue will be posted at www.ShowApero.com and announced via APÉRO’s social media platforms starting September 1st. The printed hardcover and softcover catalogue will be available for purchase as of September 1, 2019.
August 29, 2019:
Looking forward to participating in a pop-up group exhibition with Loop Gallery this fall in Toronto.
Show dates: TBA.
August 26, 2019:
Participating in a group exhibition commemorating AWOL Collective’s 20th anniversary titled it’s not me, it’s you at 98 Glenholme Avenue, Unit 4 (St. Clair West, between Dufferin and Oakwood) in Toronto.
Show dates: September 14 to 29, 2019.
July 19, 2019:
Delighted to have several works curated into a group exhibition titled Pigments at Earls Court Gallery in Hamilton.
Show dates: August 1 to September 7, 2019.
June 14, 2019:
Paintings from three of my series’ have been included in a celebration of Italian-Canadian Culture called Solstizio at 918 Bathurst in Toronto, which is part of the @wavelengthmusic monthly music series on Friday, June 21, 2019, presented in partnership with Salone di Cultura.
Show dates: June 21 to July 19, 2019.
May 31, 2019:
I’ve been invited to participate in a couple of exhibitions. Details to come!
August 2018:
In the process of relocating my studio, and will be busy taking care of my newborn soon!
April 30, 2018:
Two paintings are now part of Capital One’s corporate art collection! They will be installed at their new head office opening in June 2018 at 161 Bay Street, Toronto, Canada
March 6, 2018:
Exhibition at Bending Spoons Gallery, Toronto, Canada
Show dates: March 6 to April 6, 2018
November 16, 2017:
Featured on www.thegatheredgallery.com, a Canadian database/blog
October 11, 2017:
Participating in the 3rd annual Why the @#$! Do You Paint 2017 exhibition at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto, Canada
Show dates: October 11 to November 26, 2017
October 18, 2017:
Diptych purchased by a television crew, details TBA when the episode airs next year!
September 29, 2017:
Participating in the Carmichael Landscape Exhibition: Tradition Transformed exhibition curated by Scott Sawtell and Renee van der Avoird at the Orillia Museum of Art and History
Show dates: September 29 to November 26, 2017
September 19, 2017:
Group show, Anxious Space: An Offsite Exhibition presented by Loop Gallery and curated by Salena Barry at 50 Edwin Avenue, Toronto, Canada
Show dates: September 19 to 22, 2017
July 13, 2017:
Selected for the Summer Issue #4 of ArtMaze Magazine, by guest juror Cheyanne Sauter, the Executive Director of Art Share LA. Pre-orders available at www.artmazemag.com
July 12, 2017:
Work from my hush series featured on www.freshcontemporary.net
July 6, 2017:
Group show, Day Trip, at Gallery 555 mentioned on CanadianArt.com’s Must-Sees list
June 10, 2017:
Three new works in a group exhibition, titled Day Trip, at Gallery 555, Toronto, Canada.
Show dates: June 10 to July 11, 2017
May 15, 2017:
Two paintings exhibited at the TA2 Sound + Music recording studio on Ossington, Toronto, Canada
April 27, 2017:
One painting (Lot #1) in the Art Gallery of Mississauga’s Annual Live Auction with auctioneer Stephen Ranger
April 25, 2017:
Now being represented by Gallery 555 in the Annex neighbourhood in Toronto, Canada
April 12, 2017:
Participating in a group exhibition at Capital One North York Office, titled A Natural Complex curated by Kelly McKenzie, Toronto, Canada
Show dates: April 12 to July 30, 2017
March 22, 2017:
One painting in a show curated by Olga Korper and Taiga Lipson titled, Live Longer, Piss Off Your Heirs at Propeller Gallery, Toronto, Canada.
Show dates: March 22 to April 2, 2017
March 8, 2017:
Two paintings in the Benefactor Art Exchange Program at the MacLaren Art Centre in Barrie, Canada.
Show dates: March 8 to 22, 2017.
February 13, 2017:
Solo show at Loop Gallery (Toronto, Canada) was reviewed on www.artoronto.ca
February 12, 2017:
Featured on www.artistsinspireartists.com
February 9, 2017:
Work is now available through Partial Gallery, a Toronto art rental and sales service specializing in curated works by Toronto artists.
February 3, 2017:
Featured on www.eatsleepdraw.com
February 1, 2017:
Measured Calm at Loop Gallery (Toronto, Canada) was featured in the Bloor West Villager newspaper
January 26, 2017:
Measured Calm at Loop Gallery was mentioned in the Must-Sees list on CanadianArt.ca
January 26, 2017:
Measured Calm show at Loop Gallery listed in Now Magazine’s Must-See Shows list
January 28, 2017:
Solo show, Measured Calm, at Loop Gallery, Toronto, Canada
Show Dates: January 28 to February 19, 2017
Channeling diverse influences ranging from endangered species and cut flower arrangements, to children’s amusements and Italian folk music, Pugliese’s new mixed media paintings capture the fleeting quality of life. By suffusing abstracted swathes of colour with carefully drawn details and a coral reef aesthetic, the works ask viewers to untangle dense layers and find relationships in seemingly disparate imagery. Geometric shapes resembling building blocks threaten to swallow carefully rendered details of plants, suggesting their likely demise through the agency of human progress. However, rather than obliterating the natural living things, these geometric shapes appear to be replicating themselves – learning how to grow alongside the natural world.
Measured Calm explores the relationship between the enjoyment evoked by the sensuous depiction of a subject and a conflicting moral message, a concept inspired by the still life, or “vanitas”, paintings of the Netherlands in the 16th and 17th centuries. This is akin to the artist’s breathless lust when she enters a flower shop and imagines composing an arrangement drawn from the exquisite living things contained within. With such an assortment of blooms – common, rare and possibly endangered – she must contain her desire to have them all. It seems that in today’s world, when we scrutinize our base, often materialistic, urges we inevitably confront our morals.
December 3, 2016:
Group show Glimpse at Station Gallery in Whitby, Canada
Show dates: December 3, 2016 to January 29, 2017
December 2, 2016:
Participated in a fundraising exhibition Keepers at Forest City Gallery in London, Canada
Show dates: December 2 to 13, 2016
July 13, 2016:
Group show titled Sweet Summer 16 at Loop Gallery, Toronto, Canada
Show dates: July 13 to 24, 2016
November 2014:
Getting ready to welcome my first child in about a month
April 27, 2013
Solo exhibition Disfluency and Delay at Loop Gallery, Toronto, Canada
Show dates: April 27 to May 19, 2013
The mixed media works in Disfluency and Delay consider the human inclination to adjust outward appearances, illustrating this tendency with contrasting examples from nature. Each work presents audio graphs of impromptu performances culled from YouTube videos, layered with audio spectrograms of natural events (glacial collisions, ice fractures, earthquakes), sculptural forms implying air movement, and charted output and capacity data from Ontario’s wind farms.
September 22, 2012
Hosted a tour for the Canadian Art Foundation’s Toronto Gallery Hop at my solo exhibition False Relations and Fractions at Loop Gallery, Toronto, Canada
TOUR: September 22, 3 p.m. – 5 p.m.; meet at Art Metropole, 1490 Dundas St. W.
Meet artist, critic and Canadian Art contributor Sholem Krishtalka at Art Metropole’s window for a tour of Dundas St. W. galleries, including a discussion at Jessica Bradley Inc. between Canada’s representative at the 2013 Venice Biennale Shary Boyle and Toronto Star art critic and Canadian Art contributor Murray Whyte.
2012 Art Hop Dundas St. W. Tour itinerary:
1. VSVSVS (Art Metropole, 1490 Dundas St. W.)
2. Shary Boyle (Jessica Bradley Inc., 1450 Dundas St. W.)
3. David R. Harper (MKG127, 1445 Dundas St. W.)
4. Linda Heffernan & Ester Pugliese (Loop Gallery, 1273 Dundas St. W.)
5. Mitsuo Kimura (LE Gallery, 1183 Dundas St. W.)
6. Maya Hayuk & Jacob Ciocci (COOPER COLE, 1161 Dundas St. W.)
September 1, 2012
Solo exhibition False Relations and Fractions at Loop Gallery, Toronto, Canada
Show dates: September 1 to 23, 2012
The mixed media works in False Relations and Fractions offer up an arrangement of incongruous image pairings and split second variations that layer cultural references, natural elements and imagined realities. Roofs of Toronto houses open up to reveal ephemeral hierarchies; output graphs from Ontario’s wind power facilities intertwine with musical notation spectrograms of Italian madrigals; and groupings of fragile objects invite closer inspection.
July 21, 2012
Group show titled Collective Vision at Loop Gallery, Toronto, Canada
Show dates: July 21 to August 12, 2012
July 17, 2011
Work featured in the ArtSync Book Project, Conversations 2010-11 Season, with interview by Tali Dudin
April 10, 2011
Work acquired by the Donovan Collection at the University of St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto
April 9, 2011
Review written by R.M. Vaughan in the Globe and Mail on my solo exhibition at Loop Gallery, Toronto, Canada
March 25, 2011
ArtSync TV filmed an interview at my exhibition opening at Loop Gallery, airing March 25, 2011 on Rogers TV, Cable 10, Toronto, Canada
March 19, 2011
Solo exhibition Empirical Spaces at Loop Gallery, Toronto, Canada
Show dates: March 19 to April 10, 2011
Ester Pugliese’s Empirical Spaces is a series of mixed media paintings/drawings, which outline architectural / theatrical spaces and observations of the built and natural world, using sound and hearing as points of reference. The works identify spaces in which sounds resonate readily. The underlying abstract forms in these works are like internal organic structures. The outlines that float above the abstract ground are representations of Italian theatres, opera houses and church layouts. The layers present a challenge to the eye to perform in a way similar to the way our ears can discern a chosen sound amidst a din. Constructing a mental picture of each outline engages one’s short term visual memory.