Beauty Supply, Toronto
The Canadian art landscape is ever-changing. Places + Spaces keeps you informed of established and up-and-coming exhibition venues across the country including museums, galleries, artist-run centres, and more. This month, we hear from Lisa Neighbour and Carlo Cesta of Beauty Supply in Toronto.
What is the history and mandate of your gallery?
Louise Lawler & Louise Noguchi, The Louise Show, curated by Kate Whiteway, 2023, installation view
Beauty Supply opened as an exhibition space in 2018 after some renovations and some long discussions about what it would look like and what kind of work we would like to show. We are both artists, and we live in the house where the gallery is located. The space is around 170 square feet, on the second floor of the building. It’s a kind of crossroads location, where all the doors, stairs, and hallways meet up, and we often use it as a studio extension when one of us needs more space. We decided to show artists whose work we really appreciate, and show something of theirs that might not be seen in Toronto otherwise. The gallery operates as a Utopian cash-free endeavor in the sense that we don’t charge or pay the artists, take a percentage of sales, or charge for drinks or admission. Our main goal is to show great multi-generational work, and bring friends and strangers together for the sheer enjoyment of that, in a welcoming open place where there’s no barrier to being part of the community.
What’s a highlight of the neighbourhood where you are located?
Nicole Coon, Jetée, 2024, installation view
Geary Avenue is a mixed area of light industrial businesses, garages, artists, tattoo studios, framers, restaurants, and breweries etc. On the surface it looks a bit underwhelming, maybe even bleak at times, but under the surface it’s a busy hive of city energy. We’ve been going to 915 Dupont, a sushi and whisky bar around the corner where on any given night there might be a live radio broadcast, a dance party, chess games, etc. During the daytime they serve up fabulous coffee. We’d also like to mention the Geary Art Crawl, who have included us in their events and are run by a wonderful grassroots gang of locals.
What’s your favourite part of running a gallery?
John McCartney, Things Have Holes, 2022, installation view
We both enjoy the 24-hour experience of living inside an exhibition: the opening parties, the friendships, the chaotic and unexpected moments that happen during installation, and the melding of domestic space with the outside world. All these experiences liven up our working and living environment, and make us feel that we’re building connections to the community around us.
How do you find out about new artists?
Kathleen Hearn, 43.62783, -79.42013 (West Island Landscape), 2025, video
Our process is pretty intuitive and personal. We don’t have an open call or accept proposals in a traditional way. Some of our exhibitions come to us through friends, by word of mouth, and from exploring exhibitions around the city of Toronto.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
Out of Order, installation view, left to right: Elizabeth McIntosh, New Spelling, 2025; Sally Späth, Untitled, 2025; Angela Leach, A.R. Wave #17, 1999
We are currently hosting Out of Order, our largest group show to date, which includes work by six artists: Sally Späth, Elizabeth McIntosh, Nestor Krüger, Eric Glavin, Mark Bell and Angela Leach. It closes on November 22. We exhibited our first video project – 43.62783, -79.42013 (West Island Landscape) by Kathleen Hearn – earlier this year. These exhibitions have opened up a new range of possibilities for us. The space itself is small, but there are always new approaches to explore. We would like to include more works around the outside of the building, projections, joint shows and collaborations, and curatorial projects by independent local artists.
What excites you about your upcoming projects?
Eric Glavin, Dufferin, 2019, installation view
At the start of every new project, we ask each other, “Do we still want to do this?” And the answer so far has been a resounding “Yes!” Running a gallery is way more inspiring and meaningful than either of us could have imagined when we started. We want to keep up the positive momentum and include emerging artists and “submerging artists” (our nickname for our own demographic).