JUSTIN OGILVIE

GUEST ARTIST for the Glass City Project

justinogilvie.com

@justin_ogilvie

 

Justin Ogilvie (MFA) is a Vancouver based artist. His practice examines various rifts between traditional and contemporary modes of painting, weaving together pictorial explorations that hover between figuration & abstraction.

At the core of Ogilvie’s practice is a commitment to discovery. His work evolves through shifting vocabularies of image, mark, and form—reconfigured to challenge perception and awaken new ways of seeing. This interplay reflects a deeper concern with how identity, awareness, and cognition are not fixed but continually shifting—layered, fractured, and reassembled through the act of looking. The ethic is both material and philosophical: rooted in engagement with the materiality of oil paint and a belief that indirect, experimental image-making offers deeper access to reality—inviting the viewer to look again, and differently.

He received a MFA from the University of Alberta, and a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art and Design. A devoted educator since 2000, Ogilvie teaches privately and publicly (ECUAD, University of Alberta, Red Deer College, Vancouver Film School). In 2019, he co-founded ‘Canvas Method’, a Vancouver based art school with in-person & online classes, as well as mentoring programs for aspiring artists.

Ogilvie has exhibited nationally and internationally within commercial, municipal, and artist-run-centre galleries, is part of private and public art collections, and is the recipient of numerous awards.

At the core of Ogilvie’s practice is a commitment to discovery. His work evolves through shifting vocabularies of image, mark, and form—reconfigured to challenge perception and awaken new ways of seeing. This interplay reflects a deeper concern with how identity, awareness, and cognition are not fixed but continually shifting—layered, fractured, and reassembled through the act of looking. The ethic is both material and philosophical: rooted in engagement with the materiality of oil paint and a belief that indirect, experimental image-making offers deeper access to reality—inviting the viewer to look again, and differently.

 

Image: Theatre of Aporia, Oil, acrylic and aerosol spray on canvas, 84 x 60 in., 2025