Phil Irish: Companion Animals

Elora Centre for the Arts

Phil Irish, Calling Belugas 1/7, Printing: Hahnemühle, Photo gloss 260, mounted on alupanel, 28″ x 44″. Photo: Phil Irish

Phil Irish: Companion Animals
Solo Exhibition

Until May 10, 2026
Cameron Gallery, Elora Centre for the Arts

Companion Animals presently on view at the Elora Centre for the Arts is a multidisciplinary exhibition that brings together painting, photography, and installation to reflect on the fragility and interconnectedness of Arctic ecosystems, by Phil Irish.

Developed during a residency in Svalbard, Norway, the work draws on direct engagement with the region’s remote shorelines. The exhibition features large-scale digital prints, painterly collages, and a sculptural installation. Central to the project is Niche Species, a series of photographic composites documenting ephemeral outdoor assemblages of painted birds, mammals, and marine life. Created in situ, these works were shaped by wind, weather, and shifting light, with the environment acting as an active collaborator.

Expansive collages, some extending up to ten feet, echo the scale and instability of the Arctic landscape. Through processes of cutting, tearing, and reconfiguring painted surfaces, the artist embraces chance and rupture, mirroring cycles of environmental transformation and precarity.

Recurring animal imagery, from Northern Fulmars to Polar Bears, situates nonhuman life as both subject and witness, prompting reflection on proximity, coexistence, and responsibility. Through a balance of aesthetic immediacy and conceptual rigour, Companion Animal engages urgent ecological concerns, inviting viewers to reconsider their relationship to distant yet deeply connected environments.

Images (left to right): Phil Irish, Monument, oil on canvas, steel, pulleys, rope, 120″ x 12″ x 10″. Photo: Sophie Hogan. Gallery installation, Hantzsch Island 1 and 2, oil on paper, collaged. Photo: Lianne Carter.

Related Programming

The exhibition extended beyond the gallery walls through a series of integrated public programs that activated multiple spaces within the Arts Centre.

Artist Opening Reception and 10 foot sculpture reveal

The opening reception on March 29 featured a performative unveiling of Monument, a ten-foot floor-based installation depicting an iceberg, with dual “fire” and “ice” surfaces. Suspended by steel pulleys from the gallery ceiling, the work introduced a dynamic, theatrical element that foregrounded the exhibition’s material and conceptual tensions.

Artist Talk

Public engagement continued with an artist talk on April 19, where Irish combined creative insight with travel narrative and ecological reflection, offering audiences a deeper understanding of the work’s context and process.

Education

Educational programming further expanded the exhibition’s reach. Throughout its run, school groups engaged with the work through guided visits, exploring Arctic themes and the artist’s methodologies before participating in hands-on collage workshops in the studio space. By the exhibition’s close, more than 250 students will have taken part.

Interdisciplinary Exchange

The gallery and atrium spaces also served as a backdrop for interdisciplinary exchange, hosting two live music performances by Rose Cousins and David Francey. Positioned at the centre of the space, Irish’s large-scale collage became an immersive visual backdrop, inviting over 240 attendees to encounter the work within a performative, multisensory context.

Artist Phil Irish, in front of Companion Animals, oil on paper, collaged, 76″ x 112″. Photo: Phil Irish

About the Artist

Phil Irish, from Elora Ontario, Canada, makes paintings that are both fierce and beautiful. His practice extends painting into realms of collage, installation, photography and video.

His work has been shown at public museums, artist-run-centres, and commercial galleries across Canada. The Kolaj Institute, in New Orleans, featured his architecturally scaled installation The Green Fuse. In 2020, he competed in CBC’s Landscape Artist of the Year Canada.

His work was featured at the Quebec City Biennial, and three times shortlisted for the Kingston Portrait Prize.

Travel and artist residencies have played an important role in developing his themes. He has developed new work during residencies at the Symposium in Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec, The Banff Centre, and the Vermont Studio Center. In 2017 he began his arctic themes: he visited Baffin Island as part of CanadaC3, and in 2023 he explored Svalbard as part of The Arctic Circle residency.

He holds degrees from York (MFA) and Guelph (BA) and leads the art program at Redeemer University in Ancaster, Ontario.

About the Elora Centre for the Arts

The Elora Centre for the Arts is located in a beautifully restored, three-storey limestone schoolhouse in one of Ontario’s most picturesque villages. Blending historic character with contemporary design, the Centre has recently undergone a significant expansion (2025–2026), including a newly renovated gallery, a light-filled atrium, and accessible washrooms, enhancing the ability to uplift artists and showcase their work in dynamic, welcoming spaces.

The historic portion of the building features ten large former classrooms, now thoughtfully repurposed into over 10,000 square feet of creative space. These rooms house gallery areas, an artisan shop, classrooms, artist studios, and organizations dedicated to supporting the arts. The addition of the atrium creates a vibrant gathering place, increasing opportunities for exhibitions, performances, and community connection.

Founded in 2002, the Elora Centre for the Arts continues to grow as a vital cultural hub. Through exhibitions, workshops for adults and children, community outreach programs, and events, the Arts Centre fosters creativity and connection while championing local and regional artists. The Arts Centre is committed to enriching the cultural life of the region and serving as an inclusive space where art and community thrive.

Elora Centre for the Arts
75 Melville Street
Elora ON N0B 1S0
eloracentreforthearts.ca
director@ecfta.com

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Gallery Hours:
Wednesday – Saturday, 10am – 4pm
Sunday 12 – 4pm

Accessibility:
The Elora Centre for the Arts gallery, atrium, artisan shop and workshop classroom are fully accessible. For more information, visit here.

Image Descriptions:
1. A small, staged frame is placed within a real Arctic environment. Inside the frame, beluga whales and birds appear arranged as if part of a constructed scene, while beyond the frame, a softly blurred iceberg rises in the distance, blending the boundary between the artificial composition and the natural landscape.
2. Two images, side by side. On the left, a towering, ten-foot iceberg sculpture hangs from the ceiling and extends down to rest on the gallery floor. Unlike a natural iceberg, it is painted in vivid reds, oranges, and yellows, evoking the appearance of fire. Behind it, a large Arctic collage spans the wall, adding depth and context to the installation. On the right, two framed collage artworks hang side by side, each depicting a distant island beneath a sky filled with Arctic seabirds in flight. In the left image, clouds partially veil the top of the island, while the right image shows the same scene under clearer, open skies.
3. The artist stands in front of a large, six-foot-tall collage depicting an Arctic scene with a distant iceberg and icy waters. The artwork brings together a polar bear, whale, otter, and seabirds, layered to create a sense of depth and shared environment.