An exhibition of the works of Alexandra Luke on the occasion of the official opening of the Robert McLaughlin Gallery's new building. Alexandra Luke's life and work remain the the core of the inspiration behind the gallery and its collection. Her energetic struggle to to bring Canadian art into the twentieth century was largely dismissed by many close to her. Luke was a visionary artist, her works described as arresting, seductively coloured, thoughtful, lyrical, searching pieces bespeaking more than talent and promise.

Joan Murray, an independent curator and art historian, is considered one of the most accessible of Canadian art writers and has studied and exhibited Tom Thomson for four decades. Since the late 1960s, she has been a curator of several institutions, including the Art Gallery of Ontario, and director of the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa (1974-99) and the McMichael Canadian Art Gallery in Kleinburg (2005-6). Murray was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy in 1992 and has been honoured with the Senior Award from the Association of Cultural Executives, the Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Ontario Association of Art Galleries and the Order of Ontario. She lives in Toronto, Ontario

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