Alex Cameron
Artist: Alex Cameron
Title: Red Glance, 1996
Media: oil on panel
Size: 60” x 45”
Notes: title, date, signed verso
Provenance:
Bradley Collection, private collector, St. Catharines, ON
Moore Gallery
Exhibited at Moore Gallery, Toronto, ON (1996)
Exhibited at John Mann Gallery, St. Catharines, ON (2023-25)
CAN $20,000.00
Description: Red Glance (1996) is a masterful representation of the artist’s "thick paint" style, pushing his signature impasto into a sculptural, totemic format that blurs the lines between gestural abstraction and psychological landscape. Set against a deep, crackled violet field, the composition features a raised oval form near the top center—suggesting an "explosive eye" or portal—and a rectangular relief heart that anchors the work’s intense, ceremonial energy. Fiery linear gestures cascade toward the base, where vertical red-and-purple banding serves as both a pedestal and a stage curtain, grounding the piece with a dramatic sense of movement and heat. Originally exhibited at the prestigious Moore Gallery in Toronto, this significant work was acquired in 1996 and has remained a cornerstone of the Bradley Collection for nearly three decades, offering a rare opportunity to own a storied example of Cameron’s peak creative period at a negotiable price.
Collector’s Note: Alex Cameron was a widely recognized figure in Canadian contemporary painting, and his passing in 2025 has underscored the finite nature of his inventory. Over the last decade, his market was that of a solid mid‑ to upper‑tier painter, with primary‑market gallery prices generally above average auction results, which mostly clustered in the low‑ to mid‑four‑figure CAD range. Auction data show realized prices from the low hundreds to around 10,000–11,000 USD, with stronger results for larger canvases or works from key periods. Cameron’s paintings remain in major public and corporate collections, including the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Collection. With galleries like Bau‑Xi and Oeno positioning him as a senior, widely collected artist, demand continues to be steady, particularly for works with notable provenance, exhibition history, or substantial size. The combination of a long career, institutional recognition, and limited supply suggests that prices will adjust to reflect supply and demand dynamics, offering collectors both stability and potential for selective appreciation in the secondary market.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Alex Cameron (1947–2025)
Alex Cameron was one of Canada’s most distinguished contemporary painters, celebrated for his radiant abstract landscapes and bold, impasto-rich compositions. Over a career spanning more than five decades, he developed a singular visual language that merged lyrical abstraction with echoes of the Canadian wilderness, producing works that pulse with rhythm, colour, and emotional depth.
Born on May 6, 1947, in Toronto and raised in the scenic Georgian Bay/Parry Sound region, Cameron’s early surroundings instilled a lifelong sensitivity to landscape and natural light. He studied at Toronto’s New School of Art in the 1960s under Graham Coughtry, Gordon Rayner, Dennis Burton, and Robert Markle, aligning him with the city’s non-figurative modernist circle. Between 1972 and 1976, he worked as a studio assistant to Jack Bush, an experience that profoundly shaped his approach to colour and expressive abstraction. He also maintained a long-standing friendship with art critic Clement Greenberg, whose ideas reinforced Cameron’s commitment to the emotional and formal possibilities of paint.
Cameron’s early works of the 1970s combined flat, unmodulated fields of colour with sketchy, cartoon-like linework, influenced in part by his experiences as a motorcycle mechanic. Over time, he shifted toward semi-abstract and abstracted landscapes, building thick, textured surfaces using finger-width strokes and vivid, saturated pigments. He often painted en plein air or from small watercolour sketches gathered during extensive travel across Canada—including the Yukon, Northwest Territories, British Columbia, Newfoundland, and Algonquin Provincial Park—as well as international locations such as Nepal and India. These studies were then transformed in his Toronto studio into monumental canvases that blur the boundary between abstraction and representation. His work is characterized by a tactile, exuberant surface, a vibrant palette, and a dynamic sense of space that echoes both the Canadian modernist tradition and the Group of Seven’s engagement with the natural landscape.
Cameron’s first public exhibition was at A Space Gallery, Toronto, in 1971, launching a career that would encompass over forty solo shows and numerous group exhibitions. Key institutional exhibitions include The Energy of Line and Colour at the Art Gallery of Ontario (1980), a mid-career retrospective at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery (1985), and participation in international exhibitions such as 14 Canadians at the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C. (1977). He exhibited widely with galleries including Bau‑Xi Gallery (Toronto/Vancouver), Moore Gallery (Toronto), Baird Gallery (Newfoundland), Oeno Gallery (Prince Edward County), and Han Modern & Contemporary (Montreal).
Cameron’s work is represented in major public collections, including the Art Gallery of Ontario, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Robert McLaughlin Gallery, and the Office of the Prime Minister of Canada. A painting by Cameron was gifted to Queen Elizabeth II during her Silver Jubilee celebrations and is documented in the Royal Collection. His contributions to Canadian art were formally recognized when a street in Sarnia was named “Alex Cameron Court” in his honour.
Outside the studio, Cameron was an accomplished motorcycle racing mechanic, working from 1975 to 1987 with top North American Formula 1 and 2 road racer Miles Baldwin. His intense focus in the racing world mirrored his dedication to painting. Even after a stroke in 2012 left his dominant right hand impaired, Cameron taught himself to paint with his left, demonstrating his relentless commitment to creative expression.
Alex Cameron passed away on June 17, 2025, following an accident near his Toronto studio. He left behind a body of work that continues to resonate deeply with collectors and audiences alike, offering not only visual intensity but a profound emotional connection. As Cameron reflected, “The essence of a painting for me is the same as the essence of a poem… A painting must be an experience for me that points the way toward a clarity of mind.”
Cameron is remembered as a key figure in the “third generation” of Toronto abstraction, bridging post-painterly abstraction with the Canadian landscape tradition. His exuberant, impasto-rich canvases remain a testament to the enduring power of colour, texture, and the handmade mark in contemporary Canadian painting.