Art Exhibition Sea Bears by Francesco Gallé to Raise Funds and Awareness for Polar Bear Conservation at Downtown Toronto Pop-Up Gallery
The pop-up gallery will host a private launch event Friday December 3rd, but will be open to the public daily from December 4th to 13th, 2021. Hours will run Sunday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
November 25, 2021 [TORONTO, ON] – From December 4th to 13th, 2021, Italian-Canadian fine artist Francesco Gallé will be hosting a temporary gallery near Yonge and Bloor to showcase his latest exhibition entitled Sea Bears. This new set of painted works features large-scale canvases with strikingly contrasting whites on blue, depicting the otherworldliness of polar bears suspended underwater. To help raise awareness for the current challenges facing polar bears, a portion of the proceeds from the show will go to support Polar Bears International, a charitable organization dedicated solely to their conservation and to protecting the vulnerable Arctic habitat.
This is the first time the space at 19 Bloor Street West will be used to host a gallery. The main foyer will house the large Sea Bears exhibition, and it will be highlighted alongside a collection of Gallé’s retrospective works in the rest of the 4000 sq. ft. space.
While his paintings have featured Canadian wilderness and wildlife (including polar bears) in the past, Gallé was inspired to portray them in a form that is different to how they are typically imagined. This show pays homage to the bears’ latin name Ursus martitimus, which directly translates to “sea bears” as they spend so much of their lives in the icy waters of the Arctic. The paintings capture the magical and effortless fluidity of these giants in their isolation underwater.
Torontonian Francesco Gallé is an established painter, illustrator and graphic artist both in Canada and his native Italy. Gallé’s eclectic style employs techniques as diverse as pencil drawing and non-brush painting. Often the simplicity of composition and prominent use of white space recall old master drawings. But at times his heavy brushstrokes and saturated colours are more akin to the work of his mentor, celebrated Canadian abstract artist, Richard Gorman. Brewed espresso also serves as an organic component in some of his work and is used alongside traditional materials and paints. His work has been exhibited widely in Toronto, including shows at the Bata Shoe Museum, De Luca Fine Art, the Lonsdale and the Joseph D. Carrier Art Gallery, as well as in Sicily at the Palazzo Florio. Awards include two Applied Arts Awards in Canada and a Certosa in Italy.
The pop-up gallery will host a private launch event Friday December 3rd, but will be open to the public daily from December 4th to 13th, 2021. Hours will run Sunday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. For more information about polar bear conservation, please go to www.polarbearsinternational.org and find out how to get involved.
For more images or more information, contact:
Francesco Gallé
Tel: 416-876-4540
Email: cicciogalle@gmail.com
Website: www.francescogalle.com
Instagram: @francescogalle
*Francesco Gallé is not affiliated in any manner with Polar Bears International or any of its programs, projects or websites.