Dan Solomon 

My passion in painting has always been color, light and a sense of joy. Matisse and Miro have inspired me continually. I strive to make are that is sensuous, rich and visually complex. I am trying to introduce a new dimension of space into my paintings that represents a set of possibilities yet to be discovered. I want my work to explore a space where painting history, the natural world, and my imagination are free to invent combinations of images which I have only seen in my dreams.

Dan Solomon, 2003

In the 1970’s a young painter, in defiance of U.S. policies in South East Asia, appeared in Toronto. Dan Solomon, a graduate of the progressive art department at the University of Oregon, had no problem fitting in with a group of "bad boy" artists emerging onto the Toronto art scene. They included Alex Cameron, David Bolduc and Paul Fournier. Their work, while distinctly individual, shared the same qualities of intensity and brashness that defined Solomon’s own painting style. Explosions of shape and colour, an aggressive emphatic abstractness and an unbounded exuberance and love of painting was clearly evident.

Daniel Solomon’s painting continues to develop and grow as he explores the concepts of visual density, clarity and spatial complexity. This fascination with space/time/movement/scale is ideally recognized in his designs for stage set and theatre, most notably, his designs for the Robert Desrosiers Dance company (October, 1991).

Daniel Solomon has been having solo and group exhibitions since 1970. His one-man exhibitions include the Isaacs Gallery, Toronto (1970, 1971, 1973, 1974), The Owens Gallery, Sackville, N.B. (1975), David Mirvish Gallery, Toronto (1977), Works on Paper Gallery 76, Toronto (1978), Klonaridis Inc., Toronto (1980, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1991), Watson/de Nagy & Co., Houston, Texas (1981), Elca London Gallery, Montreal (1982, 1990), The Watson Gallery, Houston, Texas (1986), Hamilton Art Gallery (1991), The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa (1992), Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, N.B. (1992), The Edmonton Art Gallery (1993).

Solomon has also been included in many group exhibitions including Scarborough College, University of Toronto (1970), Festival Canada, Robertson Art Gallery, Binghampton, New York (1971), Five Lyrical Colour Painters Art Gallery of Ontario (1971), 12 x 12 Owens Art Gallery, Sackville, N.B. (1972), Contemporary Painting University of Waterloo (1973), Inaugural Exhibition Art Gallery of Ontario (1974), Canada X 10 Edmonton Art Gallery (traveling-1974/75), Works On Paper and Sculpture, Group Show and A Selection of Painting In Toronto David Mirvish Gallery, Toronto (1976), Works On Paper Galerie Wentzel, Hamburg, West Germany (1977), Six From Toronto Watson/de Nagy & Co., Houston, Texas (1977), Fauve Heritage Edmonton Art Gallery (1977), New Abstract Art Edmonton Art Gallery (1977), 14 Canadians: A Critic’s Choice Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington (1977), Bologna Art Fair, Bologna, Italy (1977), A Group Show David Mirvish Gallery (1977), Certain Traditions: Recent British and Canadian Art Edmonton Art Gallery (traveling - 1978), Gallery Artists: Works On Paper Klonaridis Inc., Toronto (1980), 8 Painters Wells Gallery, Ottawa (1981), Group Show: Gallery Artists Lillian Heidenberg, New York (1983, 1985), Le Genie de las Bastille Paris, France (1986), Group Show Robertson Gallery, Ottawa (1990), Considering Space Joseph D. Carrier Art Gallery, Toronto (1992), The Klonaridis Group Moore Gallery, Hamilton (1995).

Daniel Solomon’s work is included in the collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Canada Council Art Bank, the Edmonton Art Gallery, the Owens Art Gallery, Sackville, N.B., the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, the Ontario College of Art Collection, the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, the Agnes Etherington Art Gallery, Kingston, Ontario, the Art Gallery of Windsor, the University of Toronto and the Baycrest Hospital, Toronto. He is also included in the corporate collections of Sony Music, The Creed Group, Coopers & Lybrand, Peat Marwick Thorne Riddell, Cole & Partners, Cinecapital, Steinberg Corporation, Montreal, Prince Hotel, Tokyo, Xerox of Canada, Burnac, Texas Instruments, Houston, The Royal Bank of Canada, United Westburne Industries, the Richman Group, Citicorp, Deluxe Films, Los Angeles, Alcan, Osler Hoskin and Harcourt, Uni-World Development Corp., Third Generation Realty, Dennis Commercial Properties, Enterprise Advertising., Irving Trust, Grant Jacks Inc., McCarthy Tetrault, Minden Gross Grafstein & Greenstein, Moore Corp., The Permanent, Proctor and Redfern, Syncorp Credit Corp, Polystar Ltd., Thorne-Mark Capital, Toronto Dominion Bank, Tory Tory Deslauriers & Binnington, Illyria Inc., Onex Corp.