Summer 2025 Exhibitions at Luminato Gallery

Luminato Gallery, First Floor, 2025. Photographer Natalie Logan.

Contemporary Summer Exhibitions

June 26 – September 30, 2025
Luminato Gallery, Toronto

Luminato Gallery proudly presents its first exhibitions, featuring three dynamic shows across its newly opened space—two on the first floor and one on the second. Since its recent opening on June 26, 2025, Luminato has emerged as a vibrant hub for contemporary and abstract art, spotlighting both local and international voices. Guided by a mission to foster creativity, conversation, and connection, the gallery showcases works that challenge perspectives and celebrate diversity.

Together, the artists’ work forms the foundation of Luminato’s curatorial vision, one that invites audiences to experience contemporary art as both a personal journey and a shared, collective moment. Currently on view are powerful and thought-provoking works by 10 remarkable artists: Dori Vanderheyden, Emre Namyeter, Jamie MacLean, Julio Garcia, Lis Sam, Pavlina Alea, Rick Lowe, Stephen Yau, Victoria Kovalenchikova and Vladimir Kanic. Their diverse practices span a range of media, styles, and cultural influences, offering visitors a compelling exploration of materiality, emotion, and form.

Luminato Gallery, Second Floor, 2025. Photographer Natalie Logan.

Jamie MacLean, Julio Garcia, and Stephen Yau each harness the emotive power of nature to tell deeply personal and visually striking stories. MacLean captures nature’s raw beauty with textured brushstrokes that immerse the viewer in moment and memory, echoing the vast, untamed landscapes that shape Canadian identity. His work evokes the spirit of nature, offering a visual homage to Canada’s natural heritage and the connection many feel to its land. As a master of light, Yau’s luminous landscapes evoke a sense of serenity and introspection. Garcia’s vibrant, surrealist paintings explore the emotional depth of human experience through disassembled figures and tactile textures rooted in his connection to Baja California’s natural landscape. Together, their works invite us to feel, reflect, and reconnect through the poetry of nature.

Pavlina Alea and Lis Sam merge portraiture and nature as one, examining humanity’s relationship with the environment. Artist Lis Sam invites viewers to celebrate the delicate beauty of the natural world through intricate portraits composed of hundreds of tiny paper butterflies. Pavlina Alea’s paintings capture fleeting moments of beauty shaped by water, light, and reflection, producing figures that feel both surreal and monumental.

Emre Namyeter, Rick Lowe, and Dori Vanderheyden explore the transformative power of perception and material. Namyeter’s vivid, abstract compositions challenge our perception, echoing the legacy of Op Art with a contemplative twist, reiterating this ideology of optical illusion, where every glance is a unique experience. Rick Lowe’s vibrant resin works celebrate unpredictability and individuality, embracing the beauty found in transformation and sensory discovery. Meanwhile, Dori Vanderheyden’s striking silhouettes and Plexiglass series explore relationships between movement, light, and the rhythmic dance of colour.

Luminato Gallery, Exterior View, 2025. Photographer Natalie Logan.

The Story Behind Luminato Gallery

Luminato Gallery was born from a vision—to create a space where contemporary art could spark not just admiration, but meaningful connection. Dedicated to showcasing bold and intriguing works by both emerging and established artists, the gallery brings together both local and international voices that speak to the complexities of our time.

The name “Luminato” is a tribute to the gallery founder’s late business partner, Wayne MacInnis, a beacon of light whose passion for the arts continues to illuminate Luminato Gallery’s path. It stands for brilliance, inspiration, and the transformative power of creativity to unite us across borders and experiences.

But Luminato is more than a gallery. At its heart is a commitment to giving back, in which 10% of all sales support cancer patients in need. Every artwork acquired becomes part of a larger story, one of compassion, impact, and collective care. Because here, art isn’t just seen. It’s felt. It makes a difference.

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