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The triptic by Gorlitz From the Top, depicts three different mapping visuals of a globe, representing the Canadian Atlantic coast. Set in Simcoe Place, the three panels are layed out in different positions, one horizontally, the other vertically and the last slightly tilted to the right, playing with the eye of the public. Gorlitz pays particular attention to nature and natural occurrences. Whether his paintings are of grassfires, maps or forests, Gorlitz’s canvases are both natural representations and cerebral developments. There is a strong connection to language in Gorlitz’s work and a focus on the way that signs and symbols work in our understanding of the world.

Will Gorlitz was born in Buenos Aires in 1952 and currently lives near Toronto in the city of Guelph. He studied art at the University of Manitoba School of Art as well as the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design and was a Professor in Studio Art at the University of Guelph.

As a representational painter, Gorlitz deploys an engaged painterly approach that foregrounds visuality just as it critically pursues a discourse with other media technologies. His metaphorical subjects entwine personal experience with broader cultural matters.

Gorlitz has exhibited widely since the early 1980s, with major solo/survey exhibitions at Chromazone, YYZ Artists’ Outlet, the Art Gallery of Ontario, 49th Parallel (Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art), Centre culturel Canadien Paris, Artspeak, Oakville Galleries, Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery, the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, and the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art. Solo commercial exhibitions of his work have been held at the Sable-Castelli Gallery, Galerie René Blouin, Birch Libralato and Michael Gibson Gallery. His artwork is in numerous public permanent collections including the Art Gallery of Ontario, Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Museum London, University of Toronto Art Centre, Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Glenbow Museum, Art Gallery of Guelph, Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery, MacLaren Art Centre, Hamilton Art Gallery, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Winnipeg Art Gallery, and the National Gallery of Canada.