Martin Hirschberg, an accomplished artist, has had numerous one-man shows, exhibitions and major commissions. He has received several grants, and has garnered many awards, along with having some of his works included as part of the permanent collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Stratford Art Gallery, and in private collections throughout North America. Born in Toronto, Martin started painting at an early age, graduating from Central Technical School’s Art Program, with classes at the Ontario College of Art and post-graduate work at the Institute Allende in San Miguel, Mexico. He has participated in and has led many lectures and workshops, and has conducted several children’s art classes in Toronto. Martin first harnessed his creative energy on canvas and his early paintings delved into his rapacious love of middle-class people in an engaging semi-pop, hard-edged style. From there he explored plastic and light, concentrating on simplicity in beautiful and suggestive plexiglass sculptures radiating different intensities of coloured light. Commissioned by the Federal Government to create a sculpture for the Health Protection Branch of National Health and Welfare in Ottawa, Martin created a piece composed of plastic acrylic tubes, motion sensitive electronics, mirrors and flickering light which captured the spirit of the scientific and technological work taking place in the building. In recent years, Martin has gone back to his first love – acrylics on canvas. His most recent exhibitions have featured stylistic representations of “The Family”; a starkly beautiful series of blue and white images of the Greek island of “Santorini”; and the works currently being showcased on this site – a dramatic series of floral marketplaces, “From the Garden”, which uses lush foliage and lively textures to bring light and shadow to the forefront, and evoke feelings of serenity.