Richard Gorman (1935-2010), an abstract expressionist painter born in Ottawa, was influenced by Toronto’s Painter’s Eleven and the abstract movement in New York. He studied at the Ontario College of Art under Jock MacDonald and graduated in 1958. Following his graduation, Gorman was represented by Av Isaacs at his Greenwich Gallery (later called Isaacs Gallery) in Toronto.
His peers included Gordon Rayner, Robert Markle, Graham Coughtry, John Meredith, and Dennis Burton. In 1966, with fellow artist John Meredith, he was selected to represent Canada at the Paris Biennial.
Gorman also produced aluminium sculptures, experimented with film and tried printmaking. From 1971 to 1989 he taught painting and drawing at the Ottawa School of Art and the University of Ottawa. In 1986, he produced a mural for the new Ottawa Provincial Court House.
Joan Murray produced a book and travelling exhibition of Gorman’s work in 1990. His work has been included in group exhibitions like Dennis Reid’s Toronto Painting 1953-1965, organized for the National Gallery in 1972, and more recently in the National Gallery’s Crisis of Abstraction: the 1950s, organized by Denise Leclerc in 1993.