Lorne Wagman

Lorne Wagman

Lorne Wagman - Biography

Lorne Wagman, one of the finest landscape painters in Canada, began his career showing with Toronto's Isaacs Gallery in the early 1980s. A highly prolific artist, Wagman lives and breathes painting. Working out of his farmhouse studio in Owen Sound, Lorne captures the countryside by finding a balance between realism and abstraction with an impressionist flare. Expressive brush strokes combined with bright, contrasting colours and beautifully expansive skylines (reminiscent of both Van Gogh and the Group of Seven's Lawren Harris) make Wagman one of the most sought after Canadian artists.

"All my paintings are based on reality, as I see it. The watercolors were all painted outdoors, directly from nature. The oils are my re-interpretation, they are even more true to the scene, as they have gone through the filter of my memory and imagination, and that is the truest, most multidimensional depiction of my interaction with nature." –Lorne Wagman (Artist Photo c/o Willy Waterton)

Public and Corporate Collections:
Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery, Owen Sound, ON
Lethbridge University Gallery, Alberta
Sunlife Canada, Toronto, ON
Canada Council Art Bank, Ottawa, ON
Roman Hall, St. Catherines, ON
Canada Trust, Toronto, ON
Department of External Affairs, Ottawa, Ontario
Maclaren Art Centre, Barrie, Ontario
Justina Barnicke Gallery, University of Toronto
East York Board of Education
Art Gallery of Algoma, Ontario
London Regional Art Gallery, London, Ontario
Concordia College, Montreal, Quebec
University of Waterloo, Ontario

Solo Exhibitions:
2004 The Intense Gaze – Retrospective – Durham Art Gallery – Durham, Ontario
2001 Deleon White Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
2000 Up in the Clouds / Down in the Thicket – Deleon White Gallery, Toronto, ON
2000 New Works – Deleon White Gallery – Denver, Colorado
1998 Deleon White Gallery - Toronto, Ontario
1997 Christopher Cutts Gallery - Toronto, Ontario
1996 Christopher Cutts Gallery - Toronto, Ontario
1995 Christopher Cutts Gallery - Toronto, Ontario
1994 Christopher Cutts Gallery - Toronto, Ontario
1993 Christopher Cutts Gallery - Toronto, Ontario
1992 Christopher Cutts Gallery - Toronto, Ontario
1992 Arnold Gottlieb Gallery - Toronto, Ontario
1991 Arnold Gottlieb Gallery - Toronto, Ontario
1990 Christopher Cutts Gallery - Toronto, Ontario
1990 The Isaacs Gallery – Toronto, Ontario
1989 The Isaacs Gallery – Toronto, Ontario
1988 The Isaacs Gallery - Toronto, Ontario
1988 Cameron House Exhibition - Ottawa, Ontario
1987 The Isaacs Gallery - Toronto, Ontario
1986 The Isaacs Gallery - Toronto, Ontario
1985 The Isaacs Gallery - Toronto, Ontario
1985 Retrospective - Durham Art Gallery - Durham, Ontario
1985 Cameron House - Toronto, Ontario
1984 Manning Gallery - Toronto, Ontario
1984 Lacemaker Gallery - Toronto, Ontario
1983 Lacemaker Gallery -Toronto, Ontario
1982 Lacemaker Gallery – Toronto, Ontario
1981 Lacemaker Gallery – Toronto, Ontario

Artist Specialization: Post-Impressionism - The work is disciplined and rigorous yet sensuous and flowing. The colors are lush or hushed or vibrant and moving. The principle impression is one of awe created by the recognition that Wagman is a master painter. He has the ability to use paint so that it remains paint and yet suggests otherwise, as in the painting The Rites of Spring. There is a flattened picture plain as if the perspective has been presented as a cross section and in doing so has become heightened in vivacity. The lusciousness of paint and the practice of moving it around on a canvas is present yet so are the plants and the leave and the stump towering like a magic castle. - Julie Oakes