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Gershon Iskowitz (1919-1988) was an abstract painter based in Toronto for much of his artistic career. Born in Kielce, Poland on 24 November 1919, he survived internment in Nazi concentration camps and lost his entire family in the Holocaust. Iskowitz studied art in Munich at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in 1947, soon transferring to private studies with Oskar Kokoschka. He moved to Toronto in 1949. His work developed from wartime imagery to a focus on landscapes (particularly inspired by practice in the Parry Sound area), eventually arriving at his mature abstract expressionist style in 1967. Iskowitz began exhibiting with Gallery Moos in 1964, a relationship which continued throughout his career. He taught at the New School (Toronto) from 1967-1970, and his informal mentoring of artists in Toronto is often noted. Iskowitz, along with Walter Redinger, represented Canada at the Venice Biennale in 1972. The artist established the Gershon Iskowitz Foundation in 1985, with the mandate of awarding the Gershon Iskowitz Prize to a mature practising artist; since 2007 the Foundation has partnered with the Art Gallery of Ontario to administer the Gershon Iskowitz Prize at the AGO.

Dennis Burton (1933-2013) was a Canadian artist and art educator, based much of his life in Toronto and Vancouver. Born in Lethbridge, Alberta, Burton moved to Ontario in 1950 on a scholarship to Pickering College, Newmarket, where he attended Fred Hagan’s art classes. Burton’s education continued at the Ontario College of Art (graduated 1956); the University of Southern California (1955) and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine (1959). He worked at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a senior graphic designer, 1957-60. Burton achieved artistic fame in the mid-1960s with his controversial paintings of female undergarments (giving rise to the term “Garterbeltmania”) and abstractions inspired by genitalia. He was represented by the Isaacs Gallery, Toronto, through the 1960s and 1970s, and became associated with other gallery artists. He was a founding member of the Artists’ Jazz Band, in which he played saxophone. Burton worked extensively as an illustrator throughout this period. His career as an art educator began with his tenure as Chairman of Drawing & Painting Department at the Ontario College of Art, 1970-71; he was Director of the New School of Art 1971-1977, and a founding faculty member and President of Arts’ Sake inc. (1977-78). Burton also taught at the Banff School of Fine Arts (1974), and the University of Lethbridge (1976 & 1989). He was Artist-in-Residence at the Emily Carr College of Art, 1979-80, before accepting a full-time teaching position there in 1980. Burton has exhibited extensively throughout Canada; his work is in numerous public and private collections, including that of the Art Gallery of Ontario. Burton's third wife, the artist Diane Pugen, was the model for a number of his paintings. He had two daughters, Varyn and Maihyet.

Donald J. Gillies (1938-) is a former professor of photography who corresponded for many years with the artist Dennis Burton. Gillies attended Dennis Burton's History of Art course at The Three Schools in Toronto, where he befriended the artist. He joined the Photographic Arts Department of Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in 1968, eventually retiring as Director of the Joint York-Ryerson Graduate Program in Communication and Culture, Ryerson University, in 2003.

John Arthur Fraser was a British artist, photography entrepreneur and teacher. He undertook various paintings for the Canadian Pacific Railway. He is known for his highly realistic landscapes of Canada and the United States, many of them watercolors.

Daniel Fowler as an English-born Canadian artist, writer and farmer. He is considered one of Canada's best artists working in watercolour. His art is included in the collections of the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, the Art Gallery of Hamilton, the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Royal Ontario Museum.

Sir Edmund Walker was the president of the Canadian Bank of Commerce from 1907 to 1924, and a generous patron of the arts, helping to found and nurture many of Canada's cultural and educational institutions, including the University of Toronto, National Gallery of Canada, the Champlain Society, Appleby College, Art Gallery of Ontario and Royal Ontario Museum.

In 1910, King George V knighted Walker for his contributions to business and the arts.

painter; b. c. 1817 in London, England, the son of Elizabeth Harlow, an older sister of artist George Henry Harlow. George Harlow White entered the Royal Academy schools, London, on 2 Jan. 1836. On 17 Sept. 1871 he arrived in Quebec and is thought to have settled in Oro Township, Ont. from 1871 to 1876. White was elected a member of the Ontario Society of Artists in March 1873 and continued to exhibit with the society until 1886.

Sculptor, art dealer, gallery owner, Frederick Lessore was born in Southwick, Sussex, February 19, 1879. His grandfather was Emile Lessore (the Wedgwood ceramics painter). His sister was the painter (Elaine) Thérèse Lessore. He married the painter Helen Lessore (née Brook). Founded the Beaux Arts Gallery, London, England (1923-1965) and served as director with his wife, Helen Lessore from 1923 to 1951. He died November 14, 1951.

The Society of Canadian Painter-Etchers and Engravers (CPE) was founded in 1916 as a successor to the short-lived Association of Canadian Etchers, founded in 1885. The Society began holding annual exhibitions in 1919 at the Art Gallery of Toronto. Usually these were part of larger exhibitions. The Society held exhibitions in other locations in Toronto from 1933 to 1959. The Society was formally incorporated on 1935. Between 1960 and 1974 the Society's annual exhibitions were each held in a different city in Ontario. The Society merged with the Canadian Society of Graphic Art in 1976 to form the Print and Drawing Council of Canada.

The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts is an honourary organization of established professional artists and designers from all regions of Canada. Members practice in more than thirty visual arts disciplines including but not limited to painting, print-making, architecture, sculpture, design, photography, ceramics, film, video, and digital art.