Ray Caesar | A Spell of Good Things
Solo Exhibition of Ray Caesar with a Sneak Peek: Bobby Mathieson — a selection of new works on view
Public Opening: November 29 from 12 – 5 pm
On View: November 29 – December 20
Gallery House presents new works by Ray Caesar, one of the most distinctive and introspective voices in contemporary art. His dreamlike worlds — rendered through digital precision and old-world grace — explore the boundaries between fragility and strength, chaos and calm, memory and light.
Caesar’s work exists as both a visual diary of his own life and a mirror of ours, chronicling the complex balance of hope and struggle that defines the human condition. His figures, at once ethereal and deeply felt, embody what he calls the “architecture of conscience” — the ongoing effort to find kindness after chaos, light after fracture, and grace within imperfection.
An Artist Between Worlds
Born in London, England in 1958 and raised in Toronto, Ray Caesar began his artistic career in the medical arts department at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, where for 17 years he created surgical and forensic imagery for child pathology. This early exposure to both the vulnerability and resilience of the human body profoundly shaped his art — infusing it with tenderness, conscience, and reverence for life.
His art has been exhibited internationally in cities including London, Rome, New York, Paris, Tokyo, Amsterdam, Korea and Japan, and has been shown at institutions such as Bristol Museum (UK) and the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art (USA), among others. Caesar’s ability to merge emotional truth and hope in the digital compositions since the 1990’s has made him a pioneer of narrative surrealism — an artist whose medium is modern, but whose intent is timeless.
Kindness After Chaos
In these new works, Caesar offers a form of solace — a quiet answer to the turbulence of recent years. His characters live in the aftermath of noise and conflict, where stillness becomes an act of courage. Their world is not one free from struggle, but one transformed by compassion. Through them, Caesar reminds us that gentleness can be radical, and that in healing others, we heal fragments of ourselves.
Each image functions like a prayer for equilibrium — an affirmation that the soul endures, even when surrounded by dissonance. It is this moral and emotional resonance that has long made Caesar’s art not only visually captivating, but spiritually restorative and speaks to us.
In the Back Gallery: A Glimpse Ahead
Complementing Caesar’s exhibition, the back gallery features a sneak peek of a new work by Bobby Mathieson, previewing his forthcoming solo show slated for Summer 2026. Mathieson’s raw, psychological portraits offer a compelling counterpoint to Caesar’s luminous interior worlds, underscoring Gallery House’s commitment to presenting artists whose practices explore both the seen and the unseen dimensions of being.
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Gallery House is unlike any commercial gallery in the world. We deliberately partner with commercial galleries and work with curators at institutions on behalf of our artists. We have garnered attention from some of the top institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art – New York, Bristol Arts Museum – United Kingdom, Asia and numerous partnered galleries in over fifteen countries and growing.