Fondo F0570 - Patricia Fleisher fonds

Patricia (Pat) Fleisher (1930-2009), an artist, photographer, art critic and magazine editor/publisher, was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto in 1951, where she was an art critic for student newspaper "The Varsity". She also studied drawing and painting at the Ontario College of Art and at Skowhegan School of Art in Maine, as well as printmaking at York University. Fleisher began exhibiting her paintings in the 1950s and 1960s.

In addition to her own art practice, Fleisher's interest in contemporary art extended to a career as a magazine editor, beginning in the 1960s with her work as editor of the newsletter of the Society of Canadian Artists (SCA). In 1969, the Society of Canadian Artists founded "Art Magazine", for which Fleisher served as editor, and then managing editor, until 1982. She was publisher, editor and designer of three subsequent Canadian magazines documenting the contemporary visual art scene: "Artpost"(1983-1992), "Artfocus" (1992-2004) , and "City Art" (2004-2005). In 1996, she launched the website "artfocus.com", which she also edited and designed.

In the early 1980s, Fleisher began to coordinate annual group art shows, including the Toronto International Art Fair, Art Expo Toronto, the Toronto Indoor Art Show, and the Artfocus Fall Annual Artists' Show.

Fleisher's own art practice evolved in the 1970s from painting to photography, what she termed "photoart", with an emphasis on city streetscapes, manipulated dual images and reflective surfaces. She exhibited this work in small group and solo shows at venues in Canada and the United States from the 1980s to the 2000s.