Artist Bio.

Sheila Cavanagh is a psychoanalyst and artist based in Toronto. She brings her interest in nature and the human psyche to her abstract paintings and mixed media wall sculptures. Cavanagh’s current work is made of found materials from the shores of Lake Ontario (Leslie Spit). She choreographs her own artistic explorations alongside a community of artists at the Akin Collective in Toronto. Cavanagh’s art has been exhibited at the Art Gallery of Mississauga, the Latcham Art Centre in Stouffville, the Propeller Art Gallery in Toronto and, most recently, the 2026 Society of Canadian Artists International Online Juried Exhibition (forthcoming).

Artist Statement

I do mixed media paintings and wall-sculptures. As a psychoanalyst and artist inspired by the healing properties of water, I beachcomb for materials from the built environment: relics of the city’s past. To make way for modernist architecture in the 1960s-1980s, the City of Toronto demolished working class neighbourhoods. Shattered building materials were disposed of in Lake Ontario. Each material fragment appearing in my work was collected along the shores of Tommy Thompson Park (Leslie Spit). The materials have been changed by ice and time. My wall sculptures are designed to find beauty in fragmentation, hope in despair, and renewal in demolition.

Juried Exhibitions:

‘Raining Gems’ (April 24, 2026) Society of Canadian Artists (SCA) Open International Online Juried Exhibition, Canada.

(May 23, 2026) Awarded Gallery Space at Youngplace Craft and Art Fair 2026, Toronto (Canada)

‘Raining Gems’ (May 26 - June 11, 2026) Neilson Park Creative Centre’s (NPCC) Be Creative  Pride Juried exhibition, Etobicoke (Canada).

‘Opulence’ (March 16-April 25 2026) Annual Juried Exhibition at the Latcham Art Centre, Stouffville (Canada).

‘Raining Gems’ (Nov 2025 - Jan 2026) Annual Juried Exhibition at the Art Gallery of Mississauga (Canada).

Group Exhibitions:

“Vanilla Drops” and “Black Out” (Feb. 11-March 1, 2026) Eureka exhibition. Propeller Art Gallery, Toronto, Canada.

“Excavation” and “Whirlwind” (March 8-23, 2025) Small Pleasures Exhibition. Propeller Art Gallery, Toronto, Canada

Artist Residencies:

Magpie Ridge Art Residency, Cherry Gardens, South Australia (Dec. 12-18, 2025).