In my art, I am concerned with the materiality and the processes of painting insofar as they perform as a metaphor for idea and emotion and as the sublimation of content. My paintings are about the sensory experience of abstract principles. I want the viewer to be as intimately involved as possible with the paintings, through reflection, through absorption, through the use of repetition and through a concern for Beauty.
I want the viewer’s eye to feel compelled to return to the images I create, again and again, and never to be completely satisfied that is has been able to accommodate all that it sees – to create a fascinated involvement with the work on the part of the viewer. Thus the paintings make for an insistent viewing eye, one not simply content to gloss over or to re-create the processes involved in their creation, but more importantly to achieve a heightened sense of the business of seeing: The eye sees itself in the act of seeing. At that level of exchange, the viewer and the artist can share a similar experience of the art itself so that the abstraction in my art can become a bridge rather than a barrier, to an understanding of abstract art.
Gallery Representation:
Galerie l’Onyx, 6400 Monk, Montreal, Que.
Solo Exhibitions:
2023 PORTRAITS/ABSTRACTIONS, Galerie L’Onyx. Montreal, QC
2020 FLORIOGRAPHY QUARTET, 111Grafton, Charlottetown, PE
2019 ZIP/SARDONYX, Gallery Vu, Montreal, QC
2018 SARDONYX, New Work, David Kaye Gallery, Toronto, ON
2018 New Paintings, Gallery Vu, 5929 Boul. Monk, Montreal, QC
2016 Recent Paintings, David Kaye Gallery, Toronto, ON
2015 I Know These People, long term loan to Confederation Centre Public Library, Charlottetown, PE
2014 I Know These People, Gallery@ The Guild, Charlottetown, PE
2014 Recent Paintings, David Kaye Gallery, Toronto, ON
2012 FIELD, David Kaye Gallery, Toronto, ON
2010 These Stones, This Sea Dreaming: DONALD ANDRUS, Beaverbrook Art Gallery Fredericton, NB
2009 Drawing in a Foreign Language, Gallery@The Guild, Charlottetown, PE
2008 Drawing in a Foreign Language, WILDER & DAVIS, 257 rue Rachel est, Montreal, QC
2008 Paintings & Drawings, Ingrid Mueller Art+Concepts, Fredericton, NB
2006 These Stones, This Sea Dreaming: DONALD ANDRUS, Confederation Centre Art Gallery, Charlottetown, PE
2006 New Paintings: Don Andrus, Galerie Lieu Ouest, 372 rue Ste-Catherine Ouest, Montreal, QC
2005 Recent Paintings-Don Andrus, Ingrid Mueller ART CONTACT, Fredericton, NB
2005 Les murs meurtris,Galerie Lieu Ouest, 372 rue Ste-Catherine Ouest, Montreal, QC
2005 FIELD, Struts Gallery, Sackville, NB
2003 New Paintings, Don Andrus, Galerie Luz, 372 rue Ste-Catherine Ouest, Montreal, QC
2003 Beauty for Ashes.New Paintings, ARTZONE, Charlottetown, PE
2000 Days are Stones, WILDER & DAVIS, 257 rue Rachel Est, Montreal, QUE
1997 The Otranto Paintings, Espace 414, 372 rue Ste-Catherine Ouest, Montreal, QC
1990 Donald Andrus-Paintings, Galerie Bleu, Complexe du Canal Lachine, Montreal, QC
Group Exhibitions:
2018 INSIGHTS INCITE, FCP Gallery, Toronto, ON
2017 GLORY HOLE: The Sexy, Sex Art Show, The Guild, Charlottetown, PE
2017 IMAGO MUNDI, Palazzo Loredan, Venice, Italy
2016 Watermark Theatre, North Rustico, PE
2013 CADENZA.Don Andrus & Jinny Yu, St. Mary’s Univ. Halifax, NS
2012 CADENZA.Don Andrus & Jinny Yu, Stewart Hall Art Gallery, Pointe-Claire, QC
2011 CADENZA.Don Andrus& Jinny Yu.Rising to the Occasion.The Long 18th Century. McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton, ON
2011 CADENZA.Don Andrus & Jinny Yu, Confederation Centre Art Gallery, Charlottetown, PE
2010 Eun-Mee Yang & Donald Andrus, Howes Hall Art Gallery, Brackley, PE
2009/2010 Gallery Artists, David Kaye Gallery, Queen St. West, Toronto, ON
2007 Toronto International Art Fair, Ingrid Mueller Art+Concepts, Toronto, ON
2007 Paint-Group Exhibition, Marcia Rafelman Fine Arts, Toronto, ON
2006 Art KARLSRUHE-International Fair for Modern Art, Karlsruhe, GER
2006 Group Exhibition, Galerie Ewald Karle Schrade, Schloss Mochental, Stuttgart, GER
2005 TRANSIT ATLANTIC CROSSINGS, Deutsche Werkstatten, Hellerau, Dresden, GER
2005 Fine Art Market, Atlantic Cultural Space Conference, Saint John, NB
2005 Summer Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Sales & Rental Gallery, Montreal, QC
2004 Gallery Artists, Galerie Lieu Ouest, 372 rue Ste-Catherine Ouest, Montreal, QC
2004 Six in One Place, ARTsPLACE, Annapolis Royal, NS
2004 Marion McCain Atlantic Art Exhibition, Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, NB
2004 Gallery Artists, Galerie Lieu Ouest, 372 rue Ste-Catherine Ouest, Montreal, QC
2003/2004 Lift-The Healing Continues, Confederation Centre Art Gallery, Charlottetown, PE
2003/2004 Galerie Luz, 372 rue Ste-Catherine Ouest, Montreal, QC
2003/2004 Great Garden of the Gulf 9th Annual Juried, Confederation Centre Art Gallery, Charlottetown, PE
2002 Galerie Luz, 372 rue Ste-Catherine Ouest, Montreal, QC
2002 Art with Healing, Confederation Centre Art Gallery, Charlottetown, PE
2002 Canadian Art, East & West, Greenberg Fine Art, Cambridge, MASS, USA
2002 Great Garden of the Gulf 8th Annual Juried, Confederation Centre Art Gallery, Charlottetown, PE
2001 THREE FROM AWAY…ONE FROM HERE, ARTZONE, Charlottetown, PE
2001 Donald Andrus & Vlad Spikanovitch, Galerie Luz, 372 rue Ste-Catherine Ouest, Montreal, QC
2001 Great Garden of the Gulf 7th Annual Juried, Confederation Centre Art Gallery, Charlottetown, PE
1999 Donald Andrus & Eun-Mee Yang, Pilar Shephard Gallery, Charlottetown, PE
1998 Summer Gallery Artists, Han Art Contemporain, 467 rue Ste-Catherine Ouest, Montreal, QC
1998 “Silence, il y a du bruit….” ESPACE 555, 372, rue Ste-Catherine O Montreal, QC
1996 Tribute to Roland Smith (Juried) VAV Gallery, Concordia Univ., Montreal, QC
1989 X-TREMES, Galerie Jaune, Complex du Canal Lachine, Montreal, QC
Education:
1969-70 Pre-Doctoral Studios, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, UK
1964 MA Art History, Univ. of Toronto, Toronto, ON
1963 BA Honours Art History, Univ. of Toronto, Toronto, ON
1961-62 3rd Year Undergraduate Studies, Institut d’art et d’archeologie, Univ. de Paris, Paris, FR
1959-63 Studio Studies with Charles Comfort, Jack Nichols, Aba Bayefsky, Charles Morey, Univ. of Tor.
Professional:
1970-1996 Asst./Assoc/Full Professor Emeritus of Art History, Concordia Univ., Montreal QC
1976-1996 (12 years in this period of time) Chair, Dept. of Art History, Concordia Univ., Montreal, QC
1974-1989 Co-Founder, Co-Publisher,Co-Editor of the JOURNAL OF CANADIAN ART HISTORY
1971-1981 Curator, Sir George Williams/ Concordia University Art Galleries, Montreal, QC
1967-69 Lecturer in Art History, Univ. of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB
1964-67, 1969 Asst. Curator/Curator, The Beaverbook Art Gallery, Fredericton, NB
Associations:
CARFAC (Canadian Artists Representation)
CAARC (Canadian Artists Copyrights)
Notable Collections:
The Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, NB
BGHJ Architects, Charlottetown, PE
The City of Pointe-Claire, Pointe-Claire, Montreal, QC
The Confederation Centre Art Gallery Permanent Coll., Charlottetown, PE
MacInness Cooper Law Firm, Halifax, NS
Luciano Benetton, Venice, Italy
Grants & Awards:
2011 Exhibition Grant, PEI Council of the Arts
2008 Senior Grant, PEI Council of the Arts
2005 Senior Grant, PEI Council of the Arts
2000 Exhibition Grant, PEI Council of the Arts
1983 Curatorial Grant, The Canada Council for the Arts
1981 Curatorial Grant, The Canada Council for the Arts
1968 Curatorial Grant, The Canada Council for the Arts
1968 Cultural Affairs Grant, Prov. of New Brunswick
Publications/Reviews:
2017 IMAGO MUNDI, Palazzo Loredan, Venice, Italy
2011 Rising to the Occasion, The long 18th Century, McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton, ON
2010 CADENZA, Exhib. Cat. and Essay, Confederation Centre Art Gallery, Charlottetown, PE
2010 TABLEAU, 23, The Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, NB
2006 These Stones, This Sea Dreaming. Donald Andrus, Catalogue and essays, Confederation Centre Art Gallery, Charlottetown, PE
2005 TRANS-ATLANTIC CROSSINGS, Catalogue, Ingrid Mueller Art+Contacts, Fredericton, NB
2005 FIELD Catalogue & Essay by Jon Tupper for STRUTS GALLERY, Sackville, NB
2004 THE MARION MCCAIN ATLANTIC ART EXHIBITION, Catalogue and Essay, The Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, NB