ARTIST BIO
WAAC member
Recently I abandoned the world of realism in order to explore the abstract path. I’m encountering endless surprises while pursuing a freedom in expression, with the help of the brilliant colours and mediums of the new acrylics. I am drawn to the simplicity of Matisse but am also influenced by the exuberant, more intricate work of Hundertwasser. Somewhere in the background, the joy and whimsy of Paul Klee also beckons. Artists are constantly challenged by the tensions between balance and edginess in the use of space and color. Solutions are endless. In my work, my aim is to make the eye wander and find its own place of rest.
I continue to be inspired by quantum mechanics. As someone put it, “We live in an odd world formed by a fabric of subatomic particles, where matter does not take form until it is observed and time runs backwards as well as forwards.” If scientists are baffled by the fundamental nature of reality, an artist today might feel free to abandon old constraints of interpretation and look into modes of expression not yet imagined. We painters tend to have our personal white whales that we pursue — something elusive, gorgeous and always one painting away. Artists are dreamers, the paths are infinite.
CV
Merike Lugus
CURRICULUM VITAE
Background
Lived in Estonia, Sweden, Toronto, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Cobourg
Education
B.A. General Arts, University of Toronto,
M.A. Sociology, University of Toronto
Solo Exhibits
1998 Transient States (sculpture); Art Gallery of Northumberland, Cobourg, ON
1995 Rader Galleries, Bellingham, WA
1990 Brush with Disorder, Galerie Beaux Arts, Toronto, ON
1981 Estée Gallery, Toronto, ON
1980 Estée Gallery, Toronto, ON
1979 Estée Gallery, Toronto, ON
1977 Estée Gallery, Toronto, ON
1977 Galerie in der BlutGasse, Vienna, Austria
1976 St. Lawrence Centre, Toronto, ON
1975 Estée Gallery, Toronto, ON
1974 Estée Gallery, Toronto, ON
Group Exhibits
2010 2 sculptures and 2 paintings shipped to Tallinn, Estonia, to take part in show at KUMU, the museum of art in Tallinn, as well as the museum in Tartu
2005 Painting, “portrait of a French woman” purchased by AGN, Art Gallery of Northumberland
2001 Sculptures of Frances Gage and Merike Lugus, Colborne Art Gallery, Colbonre, ON
2000 Memory of Nature, Art Gallery of Northumberland, Cobourg, ON
1997 TIAS/97, ArtFocus Toronto Indoor Artists’ Juried Show, Toronto, ON
1997 Painting ‘Child with Six Aunts’ included in Big Sister Lottery Calendar across Canada
1995 Annual Juried Show, Art Gallery of Northumberland, Cobourg, ON
1994 Annual Juried Show, Art Gallery of Northumberland, Cobourg, ON
1976-77 On View, Visual Arts Ontario
1976 Aviva Art Show, Hadassah-Wizo, Toronto, ON
1974 Stratford Art Show, Stratford, ON
1973 Stratford Art Show, Stratford, ON
Published Writing
Tales From Lake Surrender (novel) 2021
Ophelia After Centuries of Trying (book of poetry), watershedBooks (Toronto: 1998)
4 Poems in Room of One’s Own, Summer-Fall 1996
4 Poems in Poetry Toronto, Nov 1988
“Portrait of the Artist as Woman”, lead article in City Woman, Mar/Apr 1979.
Unpublished Writing
“Brush with Disorder” (essay on art)
short stories, novella, other poetry