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about M.F.Elliott...
biography
M. F. Elliott is a Canadian visual artist working in painting and mixed media. Based in St. Catharines, Ontario, his practice explores layered processes of abstraction, surface manipulation, and the visual residue of memory and cultural history. His career spans over four decades, with numerous solo and group exhibitions across Ontario and works held in private and corporate collections.
Elliott’s contributions to the visual arts extend beyond the studio. He has served on the boards of numerous arts organizations, art advisory committees, and juries, shaping the cultural landscape of the Niagara region. His practice has been supported by Ontario Arts Council grants and he has received recognition for his contributions through receipt of the Making a Difference Award at the 2019 City of St. Catharines Arts Awards.
Elliott’s contributions to the visual arts extend beyond the studio. He has served on the boards of numerous arts organizations, art advisory committees, and juries, shaping the cultural landscape of the Niagara region. His practice has been supported by Ontario Arts Council grants and he has received recognition for his contributions through receipt of the Making a Difference Award at the 2019 City of St. Catharines Arts Awards.
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artist's statement
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M. F. Elliott’s recent paintings investigate the layered intersections of memory, emotion, and material culture. Working across single-panel, diptych, and multi-panel formats, he fuses gestural abstraction, historical references, multivalent symbolism, and ornamental motifs to construct surfaces that hover between revelation and concealment. Floral overlays, historical patterns, and ghosted classical figures operate as both visual anchors and conceptual triggers—simultaneously decorative and disruptive, familiar and estranged.
Through a process that combines stenciling, impasto, and translucent layering, Elliott cultivates a dialogue between surface and depth, beauty and tension, history and immediacy. His compositions evoke the residue of experience: fragments of cultural memory and unspoken emotion that persist even as they fade. In series such as Things I Almost Remember and Thoughts Best Left Unsaid, the works resist resolution, instead inhabiting the charged space of aftermath—moments suspended between remembrance and erasure.
Through a process that combines stenciling, impasto, and translucent layering, Elliott cultivates a dialogue between surface and depth, beauty and tension, history and immediacy. His compositions evoke the residue of experience: fragments of cultural memory and unspoken emotion that persist even as they fade. In series such as Things I Almost Remember and Thoughts Best Left Unsaid, the works resist resolution, instead inhabiting the charged space of aftermath—moments suspended between remembrance and erasure.
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curriculum vitae
born
St. Catharines, Ontario, 1955
education
- Painting, Elliot Lake School of Art, Elliot Lake, Ontario, 1974
- Bachelor of Fine Arts, Specialized Honours in Visual Arts (Studio Major), York University, Toronto, Ontario, 1978
- Painting – Contemporary Methods and Materials, Haliburton School of Art and Design, Fleming College, Haliburton, Ontario, 2016
professional experience
- Gallery Assistant / Preparator, Bau-xi Gallery, Toronto, Ontario (1978)
- Flagship Manager, Yorkville; Corporate Franchise Design and Development, U-Frame-It Ltd., Toronto, Ontario (1978 – 1980)
- Manager, The Frame Shop, Potter and Shaw Photo Shop Ltd., St. Catharines, Ontario (1981)
- Founder & Owner / Certified Picture Framer (CPF), The Framer’s Workshop, St. Catharines, Ontario (1987)
- Founder & Owner, Elliott & Company House and Garden Ltd. (décor & custom framing), St. Catharines, Ontario (1992)
- Designed and constructed artist studios, 79 Chaplin Avenue, St. Catharines, Ontario (2014)
elected and civic leadership
- Elected City Councillor, City of St. Catharines (St. Patrick’s Ward 4), Ontario (2006–2018)
Led major cultural and civic initiatives including downtown revitalization and the development of
the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre.
service, governance and cultural leadership
Arts & Cultural Institutions
- President, Niagara Artists’ Centre Board of Directors (1983–1984)
- Board Member, Niagara Artists’ Centre Board of Directors (1986–1987)
- Committee Member, Visual Art Selection Committee, Niagara Artists’ Centre (1982–1987)
- Board Member, Rodman Hall Arts Centre Advisory Board, Brock University (2008–2011)
- Committee Member, Rodman Hall Arts Centre Collections Committee, Brock University (2008–2011)
- Committee Member, Rodman Hall Arts Centre Coalition (2017–2018)
- Board Member, City of St. Catharines Museum Advisory Board (2006–2010)
- Task Force Member, Niagara Centre for the Arts Task Force (2008–2010)
Public Art, Cultural Policy & Funding
- Committee Member, Public Art Advisory Committee, City of St. Catharines (2006–2014)
- Committee Member, Culture Committee & Cultural Planning Subcommittee, City of St. Catharines (2006–2014)
- Committee Member, Niagara Region Culture Committee (2011–2013)
- Co-Chair, Cultural Funding Task Force, City of St. Catharines (2015)
Performing Arts Infrastructure
- Leadership and committee roles related to the planning, governance, design, procurement, fundraising, and community engagement of the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre, St. Catharines (2010–2018)
Juror Roles
- Selection Committee, Niagara Artists’ Centre, St. Catharines (1986 – 1988)
- National Judge, Canadian Picture Framing Competition, Professional Picture Framers Association (1989–1990)
- Civic Collection Acquisitions Committee, City of St. Catharines, (2006-2014)
- Collection Acquisitions Committee, Rodman Hall Art Centre, St. Catharines (2010-2011)
selected recent exhibitions
2025–2026 SWARM – Group Exhibition, Hamilton Artists Inc., Hamilton, Ontario
2024 Euphoria – Juried Exhibition, Durham Art Gallery, Durham, Ontario
solo exhibitions
2009 re.e.mer.ging – CRAM Artists’ Collective, St. Catharines, Ontario
2009 Early Works – Art City at Elliott & Company, St. Catharines, Ontario
1987 Sick of Self Analysis – Niagara Artists’ Centre, St. Catharines, Ontario
1984 Mixed Media – Hamilton Artists Inc., Hamilton, Ontario
1983 Recent Works – Niagara Artists’ Centre, St. Catharines, Ontario
1983 Five Years – Hennepin Art Gallery, Niagara College, Welland, Ontario
1982 Dance Ticket – Niagara Artists’ Centre, St. Catharines, Ontario
two- and three-person exhibitions
1989 Colour, Geometry and Transition – Ballett MacKenzie Art Gallery, St. Catharines, Ontario
1980 The Primaries – Resolution Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
1978 Two Person Exhibition – I.D.A. Gallery, York University, Toronto, Ontario
juried and curated exhibitions
1988 This is Niagara – 30 Points of View, curated by Peter Harris, Rodman Hall Arts Centre, St. Catharines, Ontario
1987 NAC at 101, curated by Dennis Tourbin, Gallery 101, Ottawa, Ontario
1987 A Small Circle of Friends, curated by Amy Ballett, Ballett MacKenzie Art Gallery, St. Catharines, Ontario
1986 Perfect Vision – Juried Exhibition, Artcite, Windsor, Ontario
1986 This is Niagara – 34 Points of View, curated by Peter Harris, Rodman Hall Arts Centre, St. Catharines, Ontario
1986 Cultural Realities, curated by the Curatorial Committee, The Gallery, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario
1979 C.K.O.C. Arts Hamilton Jury Exhibition – Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton, Ontario
1978 Image ’78 – Ontario Society of Artists Annual Jury Exhibition (touring)
1978 First Annual Student Jury Exhibition – I.D.A. Gallery, York University, Toronto, Ontario
selected group exhibitions
1986 Toys – Niagara Artists’ Centre, St. Catharines, Ontario
1985 Self Portrait Exhibition – Niagara Artists’ Centre, St. Catharines, Ontario
1982 Centre to Centre – Artspace, Peterborough, Ontario
1979 Gallery Artists – Gallery 5, U-Frame-It Ltd., Toronto, Ontario
auctions / benefit auctions
1996 Building a Stairway to Art Heaven – Niagara Artists’ Centre Benefit Exhibition and
Auction, St. Catharines, Ontario
1988 Niagara Artists’ Centre Benefit Exhibition and Auction, St. Catharines, Ontario
1979 Alpha-Omega 10th Annual Art Exhibition and Auction – Edwards Gardens, Toronto, Ontario
selected reviews and bibliography
- Anonymous, Centre to Centre Reviewed – Niagara Artists Enjoy Artspace Honeymoon, Kawartha Sun, Peterborough, June 17, 1982.
- Daignault, Leona, Young Artists’ Work Had Nothing to Say, The Standard, St. Catharines, September 7, 1982.
- Lepage, Lorraine, Artist Has Many Dimensions, The Standard, St. Catharines, November 12, 1983.
- Yacowar, Maurice, Niagara Artists’ Centre Self Portrait Show, Niagara Arts Journal, St. Catharines, February/March 1985.
- Baele, Nancy, Good Craft Supporting Good Ideas, The Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa, November 12, 1987.
- Legault, Joanne, Un Regard Sur Les Nouvelles Tendances En Art Visuel De la Région Du Niagara, Le Droit, Hull, November 21, 1987.
- Raham, Lauren, re-e-mer-ging, Things of Desire Arts Blog, Toronto, February 2009.
- Zettel, Mike, Exhibition a re-emerging for artist, Niagara This Week, St. Catharines, February 13, 2009.
- Littleton, Lori, Revitalizing the SOUL, The Standard, St. Catharines, February 20, 2009.
awards and grants
Making A Difference Award, St. Catharines Arts Awards, City of St. Catharines (2019)
Ontario Arts Council, Materials Assistance Grants (1982, 1984, 1985, 1987)
Heinz Jordan Memorial Scholarship, York University (1978)
Art Departmental Award, Governor Simcoe Secondary School, St. Catharines, Ontario (1974)
memberships and affiliations
CARFAC – Canadian Artists’ Representation
Niagara Artists’ Centre, St. Catharines, Ontario
Hamilton Artists Inc., Hamilton, Ontario