Curated Collections - May 2025

As an award winning Artist, Teacher, Juror and Gallery owner in Niagara Falls, Steve Wilson is an elected and signature member of the Federation of Canadian Artists, the Ontario Society of Artists (OSA), Society of Canadian Artists (SCA) and Southern Ontario Visual Artists (SOVA). Steve has served on boards for the OSA, SCA, Beaux-Arts Brampton serving as President and currently sits on the Board at the Niagara Falls Art Gallery. He has co-juried the 2nd Annual WNN Show at Beaux-Arts 2010 with international artists Charles Pachter and Daphne Odjig, the Halton Hills Plein Air Challenge as well as juried for the CFS, the Orangeville art group, the Franklin Carmichael Art Centre, Headwaters Juried show, Live Art Comp Brampton and Pelham Fine Arts festival to name a few. With shows across Canada, the United States, England, Tasmania and Turkey, including trade shows like the Toronto Art Expo, Red Dot Miami, Paralux and Spectrum New York, VIBE Canada in London England, TAS ART Tasmania to name a few. Steve’s work is in many private and corporate collections throughout the world and has been featured in magazines and on local media.

Emma O’Rourke is an emerging curator and aspiring art sales associate with a passion for the business of fine art, provenance research, and client relations. She has recently graduated with distinction with a Bachelor of Arts Honours in Art History from Queen’s University and is set to continue her studies in England beginning the fall of 2026.Her curatorial experience includes working as a Curatorial Assistant at Bader College in England, where she contributed to exhibition development, artifact documentation, and research initiatives, reintegrating queer lives back into the mediaeval landscape of the college. She further honed her expertise as a Collections Assistant at the St. Catharines Museum, gaining hands-on experience in cataloging, digitization, and archival management.

Emma is also a published art historian, with her research on Italian multimedia sculpture featured in Crafting Flesh: Collaboration in Italian Multimedia Sculpture, 1300-1700. As Curator of the Landscapes Exhibition at the 2025 Pelham Art Show, Emma brings her expertise in exhibition curation, historical analysis, and audience engagement to create a dynamic and thoughtful presentation of works. She is passionate about fostering meaningful connections between artists, collectors, and the public, ensuring that art remains both accessible and celebrated.

Bart Gazzola is a professional arts writer, curator and photographer based in Niagara.

Gazzola is co-editor for The COVERT Collective: a gathering of visual art curators from across Canada, sharing the work of artists they love, and work that inspires them. He is also the primary writer / researcher for AIH Studios’ continuing series Artists You Need to Know. He’s published with PhotoED Magazine, Canadian Art, Blackfish Magazine (and an editorial chair for three years), Magenta Magazine and Galleries West. He was the art critic at Planet S in Saskatoon for nearly a decade and has worked in several galleries and artist-run spaces in Ontario and Saskatchewan.

Since late 2022, Gazzola hosts and facilitates the 5 x 2 Visual Conversations (an informal meeting of visual artists to share their art and ideas) and has been the curator and facilitator for a number of exhibitions at Mahtay Café & Lounge in downtown St. Catharines. In 2024, he curated two exhibitions in the City of Welland at AIH Studios and the Welland Historical Museum.

Mori McCrae is a long-established and dedicated professional artist who is recognized for her accomplishments as a published poet, as well as for her paintings, drawings and sculpture. Her distinctive spectrum of imagination and thematic concern feeds both facets of her work. She has woven her poetry into presentations of her visual art and has melded her visual art into published books of poetry. She has also taken every opportunity to spread awareness of other Niagara poets and artists.

Born in Toronto, Mori graduated from the Ontario College of Art in 1984, and has now lived and worked for 32 years as a professional artist and poet in Niagara, first in Grimsby, then in St. Catharines, where she has lived and maintained a studio since 1995.

Rima Boles, passionate about arts education, and a believer that the arts are transformational has led Rima to a career in the not-for-profit arts sector for the past fifteen years. Rima holds a master’s in art history and honours Bachelor of Fine Art degrees. She manages day-to-day operations and leads the future development of the Niagara Pumphouse Arts Centre both artistically and strategically in her current position as Director. Rima is a proud recipient of Women in Business, Cultural Arts Award in 2022 and 40 Under 40 Business Achievement Award in 2021.

Sandy Middleton is a mixed media photographic artist who resides in St. Catharines, Ontario. Her education and background is in still photography with a degree from Toronto Metropolitan University. She lived and worked as a commercial photographer in Toronto for close to twenty years but was interested in switching directions to a more creative practice. After relocating to Niagara, she was able to begin making both fine art & conceptual based work.

Middleton has exhibited extensively throughout Ontario including shows such as the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, The Artist Project, as well as gallery exhibitions, including The Grimsby Public Art Gallery. In 2021. She was nominated as one of 52 finalists for the Salt Spring National Arts Award in 2022. In 2023 won best in paper at the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair and in 2024 she won the Petroff Award at TOAF for the best use of texture. She is the recipient of several Ontario Arts Council Grants and won the Established Artist Award at the St. Catharines Arts Awards in 2024.

Middleton is very involved within her arts community on various boards and as the past Chair of the Arts and Culture Committee for the City of St. Catharines for 12 years.

Jo-Anne Taraba is a painter based in the Niagara region whose work is passionately inspired by colour, light and healing energy. Her work seeks to fuse these three elements together into subject matter reflection travels, memories or meditations. Her art has been published and exhibited locally and throughout Ontario.

A believer in the healing power of creativity, she has led creativity workshops for adults and has served as a Visual Arts Educator working with adolescents at the secondary level for over 30 years.

George Langroek, My exploration of that most controversial of life's urges- the passions of eros never ceases to fascinate and stimulate my imagination. 

As an artist who is a Christian I have often used Solomons Song of Songs as inspiration and guide.This poetic song contains some exquisite love lyrics and is sexually explicit which I try to emulate in my work. My work has often been referred to as visual poetry.It proclaims an integrated wholeness that is at the centre of a self giving journey of discovery and fulfillment. We men and women are made physically, emotionally and spiritually to live in love.

In my work passion and eros are not quashed under Christian prohibitions  and puritanical restrictions to control the lustfull "body" Rather,[despite our  selfish failures in love], the body is celebrated as a gift, or mutual union and gratification of two diverse personalities in love.

• Debra Attenborough (pictured left) received a Bachelor of Arts in art history from the University of Toronto, a Masters in Arts Education and a Ph.D. in Arts Education from Brock University, She also attended Medaille University for Teacher Education. Debra has worked in art gallery settings for almost 50 years, most recently as the Executive Director of the Niagara Falls Art Gallery, but also at Rodman Hall Arts Centre in St. Catharines, and at the Oakville Galleries in Oakville, Ontario. As a member of the and numerous arts organizations province-wide, she has spent her life working and playing in the arts.

Debra has served on a number of regional Boards of Directors including Carousel Players for Young Audiences, Nova House, Arts Advisory Committee of St. Catharines and the Museums, and Arts and Culture Committee of the City of Niagara Falls. She also consulted with the Ontario Ministry of Education in the 1990s toward the development of the Common Curriculum and consulted on the development of an extensive education program at Lawrence House in Sarnia. She has presented at conferences throughout North America and has written various chapters for books, articles for academic journals and popular culture magazines, in addition to numerous education manuals.

• David Gilbert (pictured right)  David Gilbert holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in studio and art history as well as a Bachelor of Education from Brock University, St. Catharines with accreditation from the Ontario College of Teachers. With over 20 years of experience in the arts, David has held positions with the Rodman Hall Arts Centre, the Niagara Children's Museum, and his most recent tenure as Director at the Niagara Falls Art Gallery in Niagara Falls. His portfolio includes the development of educational workshops and curriculum, curatorial & exhibition development, operational management, advertisement, audience engagement and applied technologies for both nonprofit organizations and the private sector.

David has both juried exhibitions and delivered workshops for various organizations, including the Welland Rose Festival, the Pelham Arts Association, and the District School Board of Niagara, as well as led special events groups such as the Kids Arts Day Committee over his career. David's artwork has been exhibited throughout Ontario and he continues to work in related fields producing web/online content, digital media, graphic design, cartoons and is most recently working on an animated series.

Marvin Junkin still lives and operates the farm in Pelham that his parents purchased in 1953. He purchased the farm from them in 1973, and milked cows there until 2012. After selling the dairy herd, Marvin felt that he needed another activity in my life, so he ran for public office. Mr. Junkin was fortunate to be elected as a Councillor to Pelham Council in 2014, then was elected mayor in 2018, and re-elected as mayor in 2024. He and his wife Candace raised four children and are presently grandparents to thirteen grandchildren.