Elif Giray

Elif Giray is a Turkish/Canadian, Toronto-based, self-taught abstract painter and collage artist. She studied Psychology at Concordia University and then did her Master’s of Social Work at the University of Toronto. Although she has been working as a therapist since 2005, she continued making art.

She was influenced by the automatiste movement and abstract impressionism which lends to her being experimental in her approach. She uses a range of mediums and techniques; with her collages, she uses a combination of watercolour, vintage photos, magazines, paint, paper and pastels.

She explores memory, relationships, time and the ephemeral nature of life. She seeks balance and harmony between contrasting elements of colour, texture and movement.

Her art is in numerous private and corporate collections.