Meet the Artists
The artists are participating members of Necessary Arts Collective. Each member utilizes the space for their own practice.
Read about each artist to learn more!
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Nick Clark is a Guelph based artist who has been making buttons since 2015. Nick is influenced by pop culture and loud music, and in his spare time enjoys camping and drinking beer. You may also know him from the Punk Rock Flea Market he organizes.
Follow Nick's work on:
Instagram @pressedbynick
Co-Working Member
nick clark
linda clay
Co-Working Member
Linda Clay always enjoys combining her love of art, gardening and travel with creating paintings that represent some of the beautiful places and flora that have given her joy. She works in acrylics on canvases of many sizes to produce work for herself and for others. She is especially fond of doing commissions that feature gardens seen or created by clients.
Follow Linda's work on:
Instagram: @lindaclaypainting
Contact Linda at:
519 823 5464 / 226 337 5464
barb cohen
Co-Working Member
Barb Cohen is a local artist. Her education includes OCA and The New School of Art. Her work is the future limit case. You can see some of her work, Novel Images, at Guelph Kwik Kopy.
barbara cross
Full Studio Member
Coming Soon
chanel desroches
Chanel DesRoches is a practicing artist in painting, drawing, and printmaking. Her themes stem from thoughts, feelings, and emotions that can be communicated through her visual language. With careful choice of material, colour and movement, Chanel can create a type of feud on the surface - as if it was a narrative or conversation.
Chanel found her way to Guelph through the University of Guelph Studio Art program, where she received her Bachelor of Arts. The program kick started her artistic drive, and Necessary Arts created the perfect collaborative studio space to continue the creative journey.
Follow Chanel's work on:
Instagram: @chaneldesroches_art
Studio Director & Full Studio Member
Shay Donovan is an interdisciplinary artist creating representative artwork through painting, textile work, and photography. Through the integration of occult symbolism, Shay creates an accessible library of symbols found in the subconscious that any viewer can find and lose themselves in.
Follow Shay's work on:
Instagram @shay_dono
shay donovan
Artist in Residence
Coming Soon
nancy macnabb
Full Studio Member
dana mccool
Dana McCool is an interdisciplinary artist, designer, writer, human rights activist and anarchist. Using symbolism, colour harmonies and universal archetypes, her visual work opens gateways into the phenomenal dimensions of Self, Other, Spirit and The Unknown. With a background in sociology, religious studies and philosophy, she is interested in contemplations that lead to revelations about the expansive core of our trans-personal human condition.
Full Studio Member
usman muhammad
Usman Muhammad is a Painter and Sculptor.
He has a degree in Biology and Medical Sciences. He has written 3 test preparation books with 1200 questions for the Dental Aptitude Test.
His artwork represents someone who has studied a subject thoroughly and presents different perspectives of it.
He also enjoys doing improv comedy and making music
Follow Usman's work on:
Instagram @usmanplusone
Full Studio Member
amber ozols
Co-Working Member
Amber Ozols was born and raised in Guelph, Ontario. She studied Studio Art at Concordia University and Sheridan College for Illustration. Her work ranges from traditional oil and acrylic painting, digital design work, hand lettering, and commercial labels. Amber's portfolio has been influenced by athletics, science, infuriating societal norms, and a love of bright colours. She has a stationery line as well, Homebody Stationery, which offers introvert-friendly greeting cards and self-care items
Follow Amber's work on:
Instagram @amberozolsart
Instagram @homebodypaper
Laurence Pilon explores processual similitudes between painting and geologic formations. Revealing an entanglement of art-historical motifs, as well as mineral and biomorphic forms, their paintings suggest equivocal assemblages as imagined in a future stratum. Through a method of slow accretion, pictorial fossils emerge in their work and fuse within aporetic geomorphic zones. Laurence holds an MFA from the University of Guelph (2021) and a BFA from Concordia University (2015).
laurence pilon
Full Studio Member
Megan Sanderson is a local artist whose art is influenced by her plant research as well as her activism. A recent graduate from Mount Allison University, she utilizes mixed media to convey messages pertaining to women’s rights, mental health, menstruation, and the environment.
Follow Megan's work on:
Instagram @msanderson_art
megan sanderson
Full Studio Member
vince wall
Upon his retirement in 1996, Vince Wall began to study art with Nan Hogg. He followed later with Carolyn Riddell. Vince paints in oil, landscapes, both real ones and the ones in his mind. He was an original member of the Wellington Art Gallery, near Fergus. He is a long time member of the West End Art Group and with them, exhibits in the Boathouse. His paintings have been on display for several years in the Uptown Grill on Woolwich St. He maintained a studio on Elizabeth St. for five years until December 2018. He has now joined Necessary Arts.
Full Studio Member
