Homecoming

Maralynn Cherry is a mixed-media visual artist, writer, and independent curator. She taught two art Studios in Cultural Studies at Trent University for 14 years and served as curator at the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington for seven years before leaving in 2012 to focus on her studio practice. A graduate of OCA, Cherry has continued to exhibit widely in both solo and group exhibitions while maintaining her writing and curatorial work. Her practice explores nature’s morphological patterns, translating observation into layered visual and conceptual forms. Working across media, including textile installation, painting, drawing, photography, text, and sculpture, her projects often emerge from time spent observing rivers and landscapes. Field research, journaling, and drawing inform works that reinterpret currents, geological formations, and ecological memory. These investigations extend into sculptural works in woven steel, copper, brass, and bronze that echo riverbeds and rock formations. Cherry was a former Associate Member of the Red Head Gallery and has presented projects such as Ecological Diaries, a performance and outdoor installation at Cataraqui Creek in Kingston. Her exhibitions include  Water Stations: A River Pilgrimage at the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington and group exhibitions with the Tree Museum and Oshawa Space Invaders and The Iris Group.  Most recently a film was created of Maralynn Cherry wandering the East Don River by Filmaker Pierre Trembley and was featured in a retrospective of Trembley’s films Walking with Artists in 2024 at Interaccess in Toronto.

Sujesh Chitty born in Chennai, India (1980), uses a contemporary approach to explore the ancient artworks and culture he has been exposed to since childhood. His work brings his subjects to life through vibrant and expressive art, effortlessly capturing the balance between nature and humanity. He attended the Government College of Arts and Crafts in Chennai, one of the first and oldest schools established for the fine arts in India. With a strong interest in digital art and visual effects, he graduated with a BFA in Visual Communication Design. From there, he decided to further his education at Seneca College in Toronto. While working in VFX for many years, he nurtured his painting skills and experimented with different mediums and brushwork techniques. When Chitty moved from Toronto to Bowmanville, Ontario with his family, he continued his artistic ritual of painting everyday, whether it be with oil, acrylic, gouache, or watercolour. He also teaches painting workshops at the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington as a way to give back to his local artistic community.

Now a resident of Orono, Tony Cooper studied drawing and painting at the Ontario College of Art from 1969 to 1972. His work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions at A Space (1972); Carmen Lamanna Gallery (1973); YYZ Artist’s Outlet (1982); Articule in Montreal (1984); Visual Arts Ontario; the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington (VAC); Station Gallery, Whitby (1997); The Robert McLaughlin Gallery; and Arts Space and the Peterborough Arts Umbrella (2002). He had solo exhibitions in Minden at the Agnes Jamison Gallery (2012) and the VAC (2013). Cooper has been a recipient of both the Canada Council for the Arts and Ontario Arts Council grants numerous times over the years 1973-2012. 

Jane Eccles was born in Smiths Falls, Ontario in 1949. Her formal education involved a B.A. in Fine Arts and English from the University of Guelph and a B.Ed. from University of Toronto. She retired from a teaching career in 2003. She was awarded the Marshall McLuhan Award for Distinguished Teaching in 1992. For twenty-five years, Eccles has built a career as a painter and performer and is recognized as a supporter of the arts.

Ron Eccles was born in Oshawa and studied art at the Ontario College of Art (1967), the University of Guelph (B.A., 1970), and the University of Iowa (M.A., 1972). During this time, he specialized in printmaking, studying under Frederick Hagan, Walter Bachinski, Gene Chu, and Mauricio Lasanky. In 1972, he moved to Peterborough where he taught drawing at Sir Sandford Fleming College and would go on to teach printmaking at the Ontario College of Art and the University of Guelph. His work can be found in private, corporate and public collections including the Art Gallery of Peterborough, Blackwood Gallery, Cedar Rapids Museum of Art (Iowa, USA), The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Canada Council Art Bank, and the Art Gallery of Guelph. His studio and his home are located in Bowmanville, where he lives with his wife and fellow artist, Jane Eccles.

JR Hunter grew up in Oshawa and now resides in Newcastle, Ontario. A representational artist, Hunter primarily creates still life and portrait paintings. He works in a variety of mediums, including sculpture, drawing, print and painting. He completed his BFA Honours at Queen’s University, specializing in painting and later earned a B.Ed. from Queen’s in the Artist in The Community Program. During university, Hunter studied abroad in the Venice art history program. He is a full-time teacher with the Durham District School Board. In 2017, he was included amongst seventy curated artists, including work from the permanent collection, in the Durham Reach exhibition at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery. The show celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, 1967-2017.

Jihee Min is a Korean-Canadian multidisciplinary artist based in Bowmanville, Ontario. Her practice draws on narrative strategies and lived experience to explore themes of identity, migration, and cultural displacement. Working across sculpture, installation, performance, photography, drawing, and printmaking, Min uses a process-driven and site-specific approach to examine how personal and intergenerational histories intersect with place, memory, and belonging.

Min holds an MFA from Concordia University (2008) and BFA with Honours from OCAD University (2005). She has received various grants from Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, and Toronto Arts Council, as well as numerous awards and scholarships including the Concordia MFA Studio Arts Award from Concordia University; the Sir Edmund Walker Scholarship and the Carmen Lamanna Scholarship from OCAD University. She has exhibited nationally across Canada and internationally, in the USA, Italy, Finland and Korea. Her work is part of various private and public collections including the city of Toronto (ON), St-Bruno (QC), and Rauma (Finland). As an immigrant settler, Min is indebted to the original owners of this land.

Amy Shackleton is a Canadian artist known for her innovative gravity painting technique and imaginative urban landscapes. She earned her BFA with Honours from York University in 2008 and most recently completed a two-month international residency in London, UK (2024). Her work is held in private collections worldwide, as well as public and corporate collections including Colart, Facebook Canada, and the Town of Cobourg. Shackleton has received multiple Ontario Arts Council grants, First Prize awards from juried exhibitions, and the 2024 Oshawa Culture Counts Professional Artist Award, nominated by the Robert McLaughlin Gallery. Her solo exhibitions include THEMUSEUM and the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington. She lives and works in Oshawa, Ontario, where she maintains her home studio.

Pete Smith has exhibited his work extensively since completing his BFA at York University in 1998 and his MFA at the University of Guelph in 2007. His solo exhibitions include: Postscript at The Robert Mclaughlin Gallery (2015), New Frontier at Kelowna Art Gallery (2015), Third Quarter Summary at the WKP Kennedy Gallery in North Bay (2014), Generation Four at p|m Gallery, Toronto (2014), Initial Public Offering at Station Gallery, Whitby (2013), New Drawings, Colorida Exposicoes, Lisbon, Portugal (2012), and Proverbs for Paranoids, Elissa Cristall Gallery, Vancouver (2010). His work is included in numerous private and public collections in Canada and abroad, including TD Bank, The Colart Collection and The Art Gallery of Guelph. His writings on art have frequently appeared in Canadian Art and Border Crossings magazine. Smith is a lecturer in the Department of Drawing and Painting at OCAD University and currently resides in Bowmanville.

Todd Tremeer is a painter and printmaker with a lifelong fascination with museums, history and art. He has studied and travelled extensively in Europe. He is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design, the University of Guelph and did a Master of Fine Arts at the Western University. He frequently teaches art in the schools, in public galleries and has taught at various colleges and universities. His historically themed murals decorate downtown Bowmanville. Todd began taking art classes at the VAC back in grade 2 and has taught at the VAC for several years.

David Trotter is a master craftsman when it comes to leather, holding more than 50 years in the trade since the creation of his first leather item in 1969: a peace symbol pendant made from scrap cowhide supplied by his neighbour, Daphne Lingwood, a pioneer of contemporary leather design in Caledon East. Trotter has produced award winning works in fashion design, industrial design and art fields. At present, Trotter lives and creates out of a historic former livestock auction barn (The Cow Palace), where he is renowned for his realistic leather renderings of barns and historic properties within agricultural landscapes.