From Electrical Fire Spirits May Be Kindled presents a selection of neon and LED artworks by Toronto artists. This exhibition celebrates the history of the gallery’s location at 272 Avenue road: from 1970-1976 it was home to The Electric Gallery whose visionary programme exhibited electric-based artworks, and included many artists who experimented with the neon medium. The gallery represented an astonishing roster of influential Canadian and International artists with a focus on cutting-edge new media practices.

Alongside the organization of this exhibition, research was undertaken to gather the histories surrounding The Electric Gallery. This took the form of gathering oral accounts–including speaking with the gallery founders, Sam and Jack Markle (The Markle Brothers), former curators Jo-Anne Birnie-Danzker and Ihor Holubizky, and community members such as Peggy Gale–as well as archival investigations. Much of The Electric Gallery records have been lost to time, to lapses in memory, and to an Australian flood. This exhibition pays homage to an important and exciting time in Toronto’s art scene before it is consigned to the dustbin of history.

*In lieu of an exhibition statement a booklet outlining a brief history of The Electric Gallery accompanies the exhibition.

Steven Beckly (b. 1981, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam) lives and works in Toronto, Canada. He completed his MFA at the University of Guelph in 2016. Recent solo exhibitions include Lightbringer at Stride Gallery, Calgary (2020); The heart can’t wait at Daniel Faria Gallery, Toronto (2020); and Love S.O.S. at Centre3, Hamilton (2019). Beckly’s work has been included in exhibitions at the Remai Modern, Saskatoon (2019); Galerie Antoine Ertaskiran, Montreal (2019); The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2019); and the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (2017). He has produced public installations for Capture Photography Festival, Vancouver (2023); the Bentway, Toronto (2018); the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center (2017); CONTACT Photography Festival (2017); and the City of Toronto’s Jack Layton Ferry Terminal (2017). Beckly completed a residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in 2023, and in spring 2025 he will have a solo exhibition at Daniel Faria Gallery in Toronto. 

Katie Bethune-Leamen (b.1973 Vancouver) works in sculpture, video and installation. She holds an MFA from the University of Guelph, and has exhibited across Canada, and internationally. Solo exhibitions include   Shiny Object Person, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (2012). Recent residencies include: The Banff Centre, SIM (Reykjavík, IS), and Fogo Island Arts (Fogo Island, NL). She is a 2015 recipient of an Ontario Arts Council Chalmers Fellowship Grant to research sculptural abstraction through travel in Japan, Germany, Italy & the USA.  Her writing has appeared in Canadian Art, C Magazine and Border Crossings.

Roda Medhat is a Kurdish born artist, currently based in Guelph, Canada. Roda's work is textile as sculpture, exploring the various ways traditional West Asian and Kurdish textiles can be translated onto other materials. The research behind the work heavily relies on themes of cultural preservation, archiving and imagined spaces. Using 3D scanning, textbooks and archives, Roda is piecing together a complete image of Kurdish textiles in history and as a modern craft. In 2024 he received the CIBC C2 Art Prize.

Pamila Matharu ​(b. 1973) is a British/Canadian settler of Panjabi origins, born in Birmingham, England. From object-making, and artist-curating, to feminist activism and social practice art, Matharu has exhibited at local, regional, national and international artist-run centres, galleries, museums and festivals; they’ve contributed to Toronto’s arts ecology for 30 years. Featured in the TD Bank Art Collection, Royal Bank Art Collection and numerous private collections, they are a graduate of the Visual Arts and Fine Arts Education programs, both at York University, and currently enrolled in the Master of Visual Studies program at the Daniels Faculty at University of Toronto. Pamila lives and works in Tkarón:to (Toronto).

Julia Rose Sutherland (b. 1991) is a storyteller, interdisciplinary artist, and assistant professor at OCAD University in Toronto, Canada. She is an Indigenous and settler and  is a citizen of the Mi’kmaq (Metepenagiag Nation). Sutherland earned their MFA in studio arts from the University at Buffalo (2019) and a BFA from Alberta College of Art + Design (2013). With a foundation in craft, new media, and sculpture, Sutherland's work spans diverse media and thematic concerns, exploring identity, cultural memory, and the politics of representation. Notable solo exhibitions include “NISSING” at The New Gallery in Calgary (2023-24), “TIME OF ACQUIRING LEARNING” at The New Gallery (2022), “Flesh Economics” (after hours) WAAP Gallery (2020) and “Ango'tg” at CEPA Gallery in Buffalo (2019). Their work has also been featured in group exhibitions such as “In Parallel” at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery (2023), “LAND BACK” at the Contemporary Native Art Biennial in Montreal (2022), and “Bodies In Conflict” at The Visual Arts Centre of Clarington (2021).

Shellie Zhang (b. 1991, Beijing, China) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Toronto and New Haven. Through a diverse range of media, Zhang explores how histories of translation, migration, and memory leave traces and impressions. Her work examines the processes of integration and assimilation, the ways culture is learned, sustained, and negotiated, how manifestations of these ideas relate to lived experiences and how symbols and icons are remembered and preserved. Influenced by oral and local histories, language, signage, and daily rituals, Zhang’s practice seeks to locate sacredness, resilience, and familiarity within the transformation of cultural symbols, forming new visual languages through hybridity. Zhang has exhibited at venues including Asian Art Initiative (Philadelphia) and the Institute of Contemporary Art San Diego. She is a recipient of grants such as the Toronto Arts Council’s Visual Projects grant, the Ontario Arts Council’s Visual Artists Creation Grant and the Canada Council’s Project Grant to Visual Artists. She is a member of EMILIA-AMALIA, an intergenerational feminist reading and writing group. In 2017, She was an Artist-in-Residence at the Art Gallery of Ontario. In 2021, she was a recipient of the Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts Artist Award. Her work is in public collections such as the Robert McLaughlin Gallery and the McMaster Museum of Art. Her work has been published in Frieze, Canadian Art, the Toronto Star, Blackflash Magazine, CBC Arts, and C Magazine. Zhang is a founding board member of the Toronto Chinatown Land Trust. She works with Patel Brown Gallery.