Now that AGORA GALLERY is up and running in our new location @ 100 Downie Street, we invite you to join us for a special event to celebrate the life and work of artist and theatre designer JOHN PENNOYER on Sunday, July 9, from 2 to 5pm.

Although John Pennoyer is no longer with us, the exhibition is joyful and inspiring, with an astonishing range of paintings completed over the last 20 years. Some of the paintings have never been seen before, as they were in his own personal collection. The earliest piece in the exhibition is Dancing Figure from 2002 (shown here): the subject matter and brilliant colour of this painting were inspired by a trip to Thailand to source design ideas and materials for the spectacular production of Pericles at the Stratford Festival in 2003. People visiting the exhibition can’t quite believe that all the work on display is by a single artist, as John was constantly experimenting and moved easily between representation and abstraction. The common factor in all his work is a glorious and sophisticated use of colour.

At the time of his solo exhibition at Agora Gallery in 2015, John wrote the following about his artistic process: Making images is my way of remembering, recording, and analyzing. My training at McMaster involved drawing and printmaking. In the print studio the works of Schmidt-Rottluff and Baskin watched over our efforts. In the painting and drawing studio the presiding gods were Degas, Vuillard, and Sickert. These are the judges who still hover and are sometimes welcomed and sometimes banished while I work. Time is dissolved in the act of making and the resulting object is a source of disappointment or encouragement. Either way the inevitable reaction is to try again.

We hope you can join us on Sunday, July 9th and thank everyone who has visited the Gallery since we reopened: it’s been wonderful seeing you all and is fabulous to be back!!!

JOHN PENNOYER, “Dancing Figure” 2002, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 48 inches