Arnie Lipsey was born and raised in Montreal, the son of European-Jewish immigrants who arrived in Canada in the 1930s. He studied Film Animation at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts School of Art and Design before relocating to Toronto, where he built a decades-long career in classical and digital animation as a director, designer, and storyboard artist.

Since returning to painting in 2018, Lipsey has focused on narrative and portrait work that bridges personal memory and collective history. Solo shows of his works have taken place in Quebec and Ontario Canada, and in curated and juried shows in both Canada and the USA. Lipsey's works are held in private collections in Canada, the United States and Australia. Solo shows have taken place at the Museum of Jewish Montreal, the James Rottman Fine Art Gallery in Toronto, and at the Aurora City Centre. 

Photograph courtesy Zachary Lata

In addition to his personal works, Arnie Lipsey accepts and encourages commissions to help others preserve their family memories. 

Learn how the artist uses archival photographs as the starting point for his painting "Ghosted"

 
Video courtesy Steve Schnier

Representation

Arnie is represented in Toronto Canada by James Rottman Fine Art.

Shows

• 2026 Solo Exhibit, Aurora Cultural Centre, Aurora Ontario, "Past. Tense."
• 2025 Solo Exhibit, James Rottman Fine Art, Toronto, "The Past is Before You" (expanded)
• 2024 Solo Exhibit, Museum of Jewish Montreal/Musée du Montréal Juif, "The Past is Before You"
• 2023 Art Gallery of Mississauga, Third Annual Juried Show of Visual Arts
• 2023 IMPACT 2023, 30th Annual Juried Exhibition, Neilson Park Creative Centre, Toronto
• 2023 “Curious Constructions” featured artist, Gladstone House Stairway Gallery (as part of DesignTO, 2023)
• 2022 John B. Aird Gallery, “Painting 2022”, Online Juried Slideshow and Publication
• 2022 Art Gallery of Mississauga Juried Show of Fine Arts
• 2022 “It’s Personal”, 34T Artist Collective Presents a three-artist group show. Parkview Gallery, Neilson Park Creative Centre, Toronto
• IMPACT 2022, 29th Annual Juried Exhibition, Neilson Park Creative Centre, Toronto
• 2022 Overzealous Fine Art Exhibition, Neilson Park Creative Centre, Toronto
• 2021 Colour and Form Society, 69th Annual Open Juried Exhibition (online)
• 2021 Art Gallery of Mississauga, Inaugural Juried Art Show, Mississauga
• IMPACT 2021, 28th Annual Juried Exhibition, Neilson Park Creative Centre, Toronto **First Prize**
• 2021 Gallery 1313, "In the Picture", Juried Online Exhibition, Toronto
• 2020 John B. Aird Gallery "Painting 2020", online exhibition / art book, Toronto
• 2020 Ontario Society of Artists, Open Juried Exhibition, Toronto
• 2020 Queen Street Art Crawl (Online). Toronto
• 2020 Gallery 1313 "Coming Home", Juried Online Exhibition, Toronto
• 2020 Members Exhibition "20x20", Morean Arts Center, St. Petersburg, Florida
• 2020 Acrylic Painters USA Juried Exhibition, Tampa Florida
• 2019 Uxbridge Celebration of the Arts, 23rd Annual Juried Art Show
• 2019 August Summer Artists Exhibition, Gallery 1313, Toronto
• 2019 July Summer Emerging Artists Exhibition, Gallery 1313, Toronto
• IMPACT 2019, 27th Annual Juried Exhibition, Neilsen Park Creative Centre, Toronto **Honorable Mention**
• 2019 Colborne Art Gallery 7th Annual Open Juried Exhibition
• 2018 Summer Emerging Artists Exhibition, Gallery 1313, Toronto
• 2018 Faces and Figures 2, Artusiasm Gallery, Toronto
• 2018 Regional Semi Finalist, Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series, Miami
• 2018 Overzealous Fine Art Exhibition, Neilson Park Creative Centre, Toronto

Artist Statement

My work explores the ways memory, identity, and inherited trauma shape the stories we tell ourselves and the images we carry forward. Drawing on family photographs and personal history, I reinterpret black-and-white images in full color; pulling the past into the present, and the private into the shared.

Each painting begins as an act of recognition and evolves into an act of re-imagining. Through portraiture and narrative composition, I look for the spaces where affection and unease overlap, and where nostalgia reveals its fractures. Influenced by my background in animation, I bring a sense of timing, staging, and design to the painted image. Elements of magical realism and classical form coexist, inviting viewers into an intimate but universal dialogue about what is remembered, what is lost, and what continues to live in us. At its core, this body of work reflects a second-generation Jewish- North American experience; an attempt to make visible the unseen threads between history and inheritance, between survival and self.

Press and Media

• "The past haunts the present for Arnie Lipsey." Jewish World, vol 60 no. 10 (February 20 - March 6 2025)
• “Montreal artist explores his present by re-imagining his family's past,” Montreal Gazette, August 29, 2024
• Interview with Denise Roberts, CTV Montreal, September 8, 2024
• "A new exhibit of dreamlike family portraits recall bygone Jewish life, tinged with trauma." Culturally Jewish (podcast interview), Canadian Jewish News, September 23, 2024
• “Arnie Lipsey exhibition reveals the complexities of family mythologies.” The Suburban, July 23, 2024
• "Capturing a complex cultural history: From black & white to colour." Nu Magazine, October 2024

Hear Arnie talk about his work on the podcast Culturally Jewish (starts at 5:06):