Brian Lorimer

Brian Lorimer is a Canadian artist with an adventurous past. His remarkable paintings of indigenous peoples, war, and Canadian landscapes can be found in many corporate collections, including the Hard Rock Café, Toronto Metro Zoo, Via Rail, Wildhorse Saloon, Canadian Legion, Price Waterhouse Coopers, as well as many private collections around the world.

Lorimer was born in 1961 in Belleville, Ontario. He studied at the Ontario College of Art in the early 80’s and became a self-employed illustrator/designer in Toronto in the late 80’s and early 90’s. In 1996, he founded Lorimer Studios, one of Canada’s pre-eminent mural companies. He closed the doors in 2002 to begin focusing on projects that involved travelling off the beaten path in service to his art. These journeys have taken him from the killing fields of Cambodia and the barren landscape of the Omo Valley in Ethiopia to the bone numbing cold of Cape Dorset in the Canadian arctic.

Past exhibitions include: Landscapes of Solitude (2009) at Gallery Artplus of Belleville; City2Sunrise (2010) at Arthouse Hotel of Sydney, Australia; Omo (2011) at Artspace Oakville; Project Remembrance (2014) at City Hall, Toronto; The Shorn Lamb (2016) at Gordon Harrison Gallery, Ottawa; and “I’m Still Here” at Details Fine Art Gallery, Charlottetown.

“Cultural preservation against the incursion of modern society is the predominant theme in my work. Through a contemporary lens I search for world-defining moments; unique, vibrant cultures; tales of survival; and tenebrous off-grid locations that ignite us to take pause for reflection so as to temper the modern shift.

Our connection to the land is what has sustained humankind throughout the ages. As the world continues to accelerate towards global expansion, this union diminishes, resulting in a disconnect. Through these images I am focusing on changing how we see the world to reinforce the bond that connects us.”