Stephen Cruise

Stephen Cruise was born in Montréal, Québec, and currently lives and works in Willowdale, Ontario. After attending the Ontario College of Art from 1967 to ’70, he was a founding member of A Space Gallery, Toronto, one of Canada’s earliest artist-run/alternative galleries, from 1970 to ’74. He has exhibited both locally, nationally, and internationally and participated in the Biennale Barro de Amèrica in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1992, 1995, and 1998. His artworks are in the public collections of the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; and the Canada Council Art Bank, Ottawa.

Some select public art commissions include: Shaping Residency, 2019, Kitchener, Ontario; Memorial Address, 2013, Fredericton, New Brunswick; Gathering of a Same Time, 2011, Metro Place, Toronto, Ontario; Familia, 2011, H.E. Kennedy Park, Port Credit, Ontario; Indigena Domain, 2008, Civic Centre, Cambridge;Vessel, 2002, Manulife Rec. Centre, Waterloo, Ontario; After/Before, 2002, Don Mills Station, Sheppard Subway, Toronto; Bell Measure, 1999, Odette Sculpture Park, Windsor; StoneWay, 1999, Baycrest Centre, Toronto; One Hundred Links – One Chain, 1998, Gibson Park, Toronto; Places in a Book (6 chapters), 1997, Spadina LRT, Pole Colonnade, Toronto, (Sussex to Wilcocks St.).

Please visit Stephen's website for more information.

Earth Day 2021: Stop Extinction! Restore the Earth

barque, digital print 19" x 13" 2018-2021

Stephen Cruise, barque, 2018-2021

Handmade tribute to one cherished.
Dream the creation and moment dearly planted.
Now stranded having been witness to change at sea.
Once with sail and now forsaken

Location:
Cristobal de Colon Cemetery, La Habana, Cuba.

US Elections 2020: Hiding in Plain Sight

Coat of Arms, Collage, 2020

Since 2017 have produced a number of collage prints ‘under the influence’ of the 45th president of the US in large part, centered on his presence and the White House residence. Begun in May of this year, Coat of Arms, is a structured as a triptych, which combined a desire to include the facade of the White House book-ended by 2 panels - splashed pink Toronto monuments and the yellow signature of Black Lives Matter. Last elements fell as leaves - of greens and sand traps which have become an almost weekly recognition of his existence. The collage of Coat of Arms involves an accumulation, a moving away from an even page and becoming that of the assemblage of form rising from the array.