Catherine Marie DALEY

CATHERINE MARIE DALEY April 24, 1955 - March 2, 2022 It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of Cathy Daley, beloved friend, mentor, and notable Canadian artist. Cathy died peacefully at home at the age of 66. In a career spanning more than four decades, she developed a unique body of work that was simultaneously whimsical, dark and empowering. Her work used a vocabulary of imagery that referenced pop culture, couture, women's body and identity issues. Known best for her monochrome drawings of semi-abstract female figures in motion, clothed in billowing dresses, it was a theme she continually re-invented through her career. She was also an avid experimentalist, at different periods in her career exploring abstraction, animation, sculpture, ceramics, image-text hybrids, collage, installation and, recently, digital painting and watercolors. Born in Toronto, the middle of three children, Cathy, with the support of her father who recognized her creativity, started art lessons while still in elementary school. After graduating from high school, Cathy married briefly and worked in a variety of jobs before seriously pursuing a career in art. In the following years, her choice was supported through grants from the Canada Council and the Ontario Arts Council and several residencies in Germany. In 1989, Cathy became an art professor at OCAD(U), where she continued to teach until 2020, when she became professor emeritus. At OCAD, she was a huge inspiration to generations of emerging artists, and was involved in developing new courses that incorporated feminist perspectives. She exhibited extensively in galleries and museums across Canada, the U.S. and Europe, and her work is held in many collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and numerous private collections in Canada and internationally. Cathy was born with polycystic kidney disease and was told she would die at an early age, but thanks to advances in treatment and a loving and generous kidney donation by her sister, Anne Charters-Klaver in 2010, Cathy was able to continue to work long hours, teach, travel and keep up an intense exercise regime until she was recently diagnosed with lung cancer. A continuous presence in the Toronto art scene and the Canadian art community for over four decades, Cathy was much admired by her peers and will be deeply missed by her close friends and immediate family.