From Bath to Bay Street: The Art of Philip McCulloch-Downs

We feel honoured to become caretakers of this powerful collection — of each individual piece — gifted to us by animal rights artivist, the deeply talented and compassionate, Philip McCulloch-Downs: The entirety of his early animal rights collection, lovingly created between 2014 and 2019, and now entrusted to us here in Toronto.

We will be showing selected pieces for this particular exhibit.

We want to thank him, as well, for going so far above and beyond — organizing, documenting, carefully transporting this collection by bus from his little corner of the world in Bath, England, all the way to Heathrow Airport, and releasing it from his flame-red-haired self into the hands of another flame-red-haired person, the wonderful Robin Waldman, who carried this precious cargo across the ocean to us here in Toronto: 3,475 miles/5,593 kilometres away!

It was almost like we were staging an international art heist with all of the preparation that went into this venture, down to the most minute detail of anything and everything that “could” happen/go wrong. But we pulled it off — and, frankly, the romantic undertaking of smuggling a tiny revolution across the Atlantic in a carry-on bag warranted that kind of effort.

These works carry years of pensive thought, grief, agony, empathy, fury, tenderness, and hope. Philip didn’t just send paintings — he sent pieces of his heart.

Thank you, Philip