Great Art, Food and Friends : The Paintings of Sue Tupy at C9 Gallery

I had the pleasure of attending the opening party for a new show by Canadian artist Sue Tupy, at C9 Gallery on Thursday evening.

The artist was there, so it was very exciting to meet her!

Sue Tupy lives north of Toronto, in Collingwood. She has always been immersed in art, as her father was the founder of Blue Mountain Pottery.

I grew up amidst those iconic bluegreen-black streaked pieces of pottery, because my mother has collected them for a long time. In fact, I remember a family vacation taken when I was a child, that included a tour of the Blue Mountain factory. It’s funny to think that Sue, whose beautiful paintings I enjoyed seeing last week, had very likely been there at the time.

The exhibition of new work is called “Awakening Venus : A Deconstruction of the Goddess”, and is described as portraying “the individual divine spirits and moments that have touched and lifted Sue, nurturing in her a true sense of self awakening, and an epiphany of who she truly is, through a process of achieving self reconstruction through deconstruction. This exhibition puts a modern twist on the classical figure of Venus, contemporary, spontaneous, unpolished, worldly, and with audacity to share.”

The gloriously colourful paintings are nicely displayed against the sleek white space at the C9 Gallery. Readers may recall that this gallery, located at 7 Sultan Street in Yorkville (Toronto), is a notable place being part of one of those innovative “new construction that incorporates old original buildings”, in this case, a row of beautiful mid-1800s Victorian Era townhouses. You enter the gallery by slipping along a path between two of the historic buildings. (There are photos and a more detailed discussion about the site, in this post, if you’d like to see.)

Here’s a look at the party and some of the excellent art …


↑ My friends Andrea and Isabel came too. ↑


↑ Guests were treated to delicious hors d’oeuvres created by Dessert Lady. The treats were works of art in themselves. There were rounds of cucumber with cream cheese and smoked salmon, stuffed mushroom caps, Polenta cakes with creme fraiche and fig jam (pictured), and tiny two-bite chicken-pot-pies. Yum! ↑


↑ Beauty amoungst beauty. Thank you to Rahaf and Dana for posing. The painting on the left is called “Mutual Love”. ↑


↑ Venus Awakened ↑


↑ Artist Sue Tupy, me, Gallery Manager Fifi ↑

The show is on display until December 15th. I hope you’ll go and have a look.

Thanks for reading,
xo loulou

art-in-toronto