Exhibition on view from September 20 to October 18, 2025

Arnie Lipsey's paintings begin with an archival family photograph, and branch out into thematic explorations of war, survival, immigration, family life, and leisure.

Using a vibrant color palette, a nod to Lipsey's long career in animation, his subject matter is often darker. His parents were European Jews who came to Montreal Canada in the mid 1930s. Although they escaped Hitler's terror, they both lost many family members in the Holocaust.

Evoking the spirit of magical realism, collapsing the past, present, and future, Lipsey's dreamlike compositions lie somewhere along the boundaries of fantasy and reality: saturated hues replace the black-and-white source material, and figures are posed in the midst of often-surreal and multi-temporal settings. By filling in the blanks of family lore, it feels logical that Lipsey's compositions lean into the absurd and surreal. Lipsey's paintings investigate the potential of art as a tool to grasp the full meaning of ancestral memories.

Public Exhibitions:
2024   Arnie Lipsey: The Past Is Before You / Le passé devant soi, Museum of Jewish Montreal / Musée du Montréal juif