lauriemcgugan.com/ artist

Born: 1954, London, Ontario, Canada
Based in: Toronto, Canada

Biographical Overview
Laurie McGugan is a multidisciplinary Canadian artist whose practice spans contemporary figurative painting, public art, and photo-based works that engage with environmental themes. McGugan’s career reflects a deep commitment to exploring the relationship between humanity and the natural world through both expressive and conceptual approaches.

Her work has been exhibited across Canada and internationally, including Circle of Trees (Toronto, Canada), Silvae (a forestry project with the University of British Columbia, Vancouver), and InQuarries (Toronto, Canada). She has also participated in exhibitions at the Center for Contemporary Art and the Natural World (Essex, England), Art Prize(Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA), The Works (Edmonton, Alberta), The Artist Project (Toronto), Modern Fuel (Kingston, Ontario), and Hamilton Artists Inc. (Hamilton, Ontario).

McGugan’s works are included in public and private collections, notably the City of Toronto Public Art Collection and the Department of Forestry, University of British Columbia, as well as numerous private collections across Canada. She has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the City of Toronto. She has shown in multiple solo exhibitions of paintings in artist-run centres, galleries, and alternative spaces.

Artistic Practice
Laurie McGugan’s multidisciplinary practice integrates contemporary figurative oil painting, public art, and photo-based environmental commentary. Her expressionistic figurative paintings uses symbolic imagery to explore the emotional, historical, and physiological dimensions of the individual human form.

Her public art and photo-based works often address environmental concerns such as forestry, land use and sustainability—particularly the extraction of natural resources and its impact on landscapes. By juxtaposing realistic painted objects on photographs of landscapes altered by aggregate extraction, McGugan creates visual dialogues on scale, intervention, and human influence on the environment.

Working in materials such as bronze, fibreglass, and natural elements, she has created both permanent and temporary site-specific installations that engage with human ecology.

Laurie McGugan Resume

Born in 1954 in London, Canada

Resides and works in Toronto, Canada

Education/training:

1977 Honours Bachelor of Art and Art History, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ont. Canada

Public Art Installations:

2009, Bloomfield Star, Bloomfield, Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada. Winner of Public Art Competition.

2000, Circle of Trees - A Time Piece, City of Toronto, Woodbine Park, Toronto , Canada

1992, Home, The Millennium Project, Kingston, Ontario, Canada

1988, Park Couch, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (temporary)

1987, Park Couch, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (temporary)

Selected solo exhibitions:

2025, Melt Studio and Gallery, Picton, Ontario, Canada

2023, Interior World, Carbon Art and Design, Picton, Ontario, Canada

2019, Path, Carbon Art and Design, Picton, Ontario, Canada

2017, New Releases, IX Gallery, Toronto, Canada

2016, Kuche Gallery, Toronto, Canada

2015, Danforth Popup Gallery, Toronto, Canada

2014, InQuarries, Propeller Centre for Visual Arts, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

2014, Evergreen Brick Works, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

2006, Silvae - Design Visions for Future Forests, Forestry Sciences, UBC, Vancouver, B.C., Canada

2005, Milford Bistro, Milford, Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada

2004, Left Side Gallery, Flesherton, Ontario

2003, Left Side Gallery, Flesherton, Ontario

2002, Fossils/Maps Heard House Gallery, Flesherton, Ontario

2000, Circle of Trees - The Studies, Toronto, Ontario

1986, Farmemories, Kensington Place Gallery, Toronto (painting)

1983, Rosberg Gallery, Niagara Falls, Canada

1981, Hamilton Artists Inc., Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Selected group exhibitions:

2019, Carbonized, Carbon Art and Design, Picton, Ontario, Canada

2018, The Artist Project, Toronto, Canada

2017, Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, Toronto, Canada

2013, Art Prize, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA

2013, Art in the County, Picton, Ontario, Canada Honourable Mention Prize

2006, Forest Dreaming, Center for Contemporary Art and the Natural World, Essex, England

2003, One Hundred Strong, you me gallery, Hamilton, Ontario

2003, Left Side Gallery, Flesherton, Ontario, Canada

2002, Heard House Gallery, Flesherton, Ontario, Canada

1994, Modern Fuel, Kingston, Ontario, Canada

1988, The Works, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

1987, Subject of Form; The Unexpected Landscape, Hamilton Artists Inc., Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

1986, Kensington Place Gallery, Toronto, Canada

1985, Leo Kamen Gallery, Opening Exhibition, Toronto, Canada

1984, Access’84, Toronto, Canada

1984, Ontario Society of Artists Open Juried Exhibition, Toronto, Canada

1983, CKOC Arts Hamilton Juried Exhibition, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

1982/3, Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, Toronto, Canada

1981, McMaster Alumnae Exhibition, McMaster University Gallery, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

1981, Hamilton Artists Inc., Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

1981, Leslie Ross Gallery, Brantford, Ontario, Canada

1981, Juried Women’s Exhibition, Hamilton Public Library, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

1981, Exhibition of Hess Village Artists, McGugan Gallery, Hamilton, Ontario

1979, Burlington Public Library, Burlington, Ontario, Canada

1977, Elizabeth Annand Gallery, Lambeth, Ontario, Canada

1977, Graduate Exhibition, McMaster University Gallery, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Selected collections:

City of Toronto Public Art Collection,Toronto, Canada
University of British Columbia, Forestry Sciences, UBC, Vancouver, B.C., Canada

Grants:

1999, Canada Council for the Arts Millennium Fund, Canada

1999, Ontario 2000, Mainstreet Grant, Ontario, Canada

1999, Toronto Millennium Grant, Toronto, Canada

1997, Ontario Arts Council - Artists in Education, Ontario, Canada

1996, Ontario Arts Council - Artists in Education, Ontario, Canada

1992, Ontario Arts Council Exhibition Assistance, Ontario, Canada

1988, Canada Council Travel Grant, Canada

1987, Grant For Temporary Exhibition, City of Toronto, Public Art Commission, Toronto, Canada

1987, Ontario Arts Council Material Assistance, Ontario, Canada

1981, Ontario Arts Council Material Assistance, Ontario, Canada

Selected press:

John Terauds, Canadian Arts & Culture, Art and nature come full circle , The Toronto Star, 2000

Francesca Valente, Toronto Life Magazine, 1988

Vivienne Sosnowski, The Edmonton Journal, 1988

Bright lights of the big city, Toronto Life Magazine, 1988

Christopher Hume, The Toronto Star,1987

Grace Inglis, The Hamilton Spectator, Hamilton, May 20/87

John Ruskin Minor, The Silhouette, 1981

Grace Inglis, artviews, The Spectator, Hamilton, September. 1981

Grace Inglis, artviews, The Spectator, Hamilton, May. 1981

Contact details:

Laurie McGugan
36 Fairview Blvd. Toronto, Ont. Canada
lauriemcgugan.com/ lauriemcgugan@rogers.com / 416-543-5498