Lorena Ziraldo

Lorena Ziraldo is a Toronto-based painter born in Italy and trained at NSCAD and OCAD. Known for expressive, human-focused works, her art explores personal and universal experiences through figure painting. Influenced by Picasso, Matisse, and Freud, her style blends emotional depth with vivid colour. Exhibited across Canada, her satirical “National Portrait Gallery” show drew national attention and critical acclaim.Born in Italy, raised in Toronto, Lorena Ziraldo traveled Canada living on both coasts. In 2000, Ziraldo completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts with a major in painting at the internationally esteemed Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD University). There she studied with and was supported by luminaries such as Gerald Ferguson. Before moving to Halifax she began her studio studies at the Ontario College of Art & Design, while studying Art History at the University of Toronto.

Lorena Ziraldo has chosen to focus on figure painting, and although not all work focuses on the human figure, her work consistently focuses on humanity. She is an observer and documenter of human society. Ziraldo uses painting to reflect upon her own experiences, in such a way that we can look at our own. The narrative quality in her figure paintings is poetic; she paints both the personal and the universal.

Her influences are broad. Ziraldo sees pure emotion in Picassos’s early paintings of children & the marginalized. She looks to Matisse for colour & simplicity. Lucian Freud for focus, the list is long …..

She has had successful exhibitions in Ottawa, Halifax, Montreal, Toronto & Vancouver. Ziraldo’s exhibition, ‘The National Portrait Gallery’, was a commentary on the lack of such a gallery in Canada, a poignant criticism of the government that axed the project. It made the front page of the Ottawa Citizen newspaper, while simultaneously covered by the political paper, ‘The Hill Times’ – art stories rarely make the front page. “It’s all a portrait gallery can be, satirical, ironic and kindly humorous, as well as sharply funny”. Lilly Koltun, Director General National Portrait Gallery 2001-2010.

Art Critics are genuinely enthusiastic: along with referring to Ziraldo as ‘The Queen of Colour.”
Peter Simpson (Ottawa Citizen) wrote “Changes to her approach are evidence of an artist pushing herself into new directions, new experiments.”

Elissa Barnard (Halifax Herald) wrote “She pushes colour to capture an essence.”

In 2011 she won the FIGUREWORKS competition.
Lorena Ziraldo is now based in Ottawa, where she lives with her husband and dog Daisy. Her work is in corporate and private collection across The Americas & Europe.