The First Floor Gallery, created to profile the incredible artwork of local artists, opened in January 2015. This exhibition space is located at City Hall, between the Service Barrie and Legislative Services counters. The space is open to the public from 8:30am to 4:30pm, Monday through Friday (excluding holidays).
The First Floor Gallery provides the City an opportunity to serve the arts sector by profiling the works of local artists and beautifying a public area within City Hall, while providing artists with paid exhibition opportunities.
Are you an artist interested in exhibiting your work? Please refer to The First Floor Gallery guiding principles and application process.
July and August 2026 Exhibit
Award winning mixed media and collage artist Leonora Husveti-Frenette is fascinated by combining images of everyday objects to form a new "whole" where the "gestalt" is larger than the sum of its parts. The compositions register as abstracts but some cross over playfully into humorous portraitures of the artist and her husband, whose workshop she invades regularly to steal materials like metal that was not meant for framing, and tiles that were not meant for painting.
The orderly arrangements in the paper collages present a sharp contrast to the free-flowing alcohol inks that give off a feeling of "organized chaos". They capture a dance of "directed free flow" and freeze-frame it on hard edged, geometric shapes to show how processes and materials that are full of contradictions can create a pleasing harmony despite holding tension. Leonora's work resonates with Nietzsche's idea that "one must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star."
