Canadian artist Kevin Sonmor is known for his rich and darkly atmospheric figurative works and still-life paintings.
Born in 1959 in Lacombe, Alberta, Sonmor attended the Alberta College of Art and Design (now Alberta University of the Arts), where he studied art from 1983 to 1988. In 1986, he enrolled in the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity’s summer studio program. Then, in 1988, Sonmor moved to Montreal, where he studied at Concordia University, graduating with an MFA in 1991.
As a student, Sonmor was drawn to the delineation of forms and naturalistic proportions associated with Flemish painting. The influence of painters who worked in this realist style, coupled with Sonmar’s use of intense color and elements of turbulent Romanticism, is seen in such abstract paintings as Vanitas Relief (2019), 100 Portraits: The Home Guard (2019) and Location (2019).
Throughout his career, Sonmor has exhibited his paintings in museums and galleries across the United States, Canada and Europe. His first solo exhibition was held in 1988 at the Truck Contemporary Art Gallery in Calgary, followed by subsequent solo exhibitions at the Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre in Kingston, Ontario and the Centre des arts actuels Skol in Montreal from 1990 to 1991.
Sonmor garnered extensive recognition in Canada following a retrospective of his work in 2002 to 2003 at the Mendel Art Gallery (now Remai Modern) in Saskatoon, the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa, Ontario and a solo exhibition in 2004 at the Art Gallery of Mississauga. During the 2010s, Sonmor exhibited with several fellow Canadian artists, including James Lahey, Ed Bartram and France Jodoin.
On 1stDibs, discover a range of Kevin Sonmor paintings.
Agriculture Vanitas
By Kevin Sonmor
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Kevin Sonmor’s heroic, post-apocalyptic paintings […] reference dark brooding abstract landscapes animated with tight, intensely coloured, realistically ordered still-lifes. Hints of...
Linen, Oil
Vanitas Relief
By Kevin Sonmor
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Kevin Sonmor’s heroic, post-apocalyptic paintings […] reference dark brooding abstract landscapes animated with tight, intensely coloured, realistically ordered still-lifes. Hints of...
Linen, Oil
The Boys are Back
By Kevin Sonmor
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Kevin Sonmor’s heroic, post-apocalyptic paintings […] reference dark brooding abstract landscapes animated with tight, intensely coloured, realistically ordered still-lifes. Hints of...
Linen, Oil
$45,000
H 74 in W 67 in
"Pompeian Perfumer" Grace Hartigan, Roman Subject, Abstract Expressionist Artist
By Grace Hartigan
Located in New York, NY
Grace Hartigan Pompeian Perfumer, 1999 Signed and dated lower right; signed, titled, and dated on the reverse Oil on linen 72 x 66 inches Grace Hartigan’s career began among the Ne...
Canvas, Linen, Oil
$8,122
H 47.25 in W 39.38 in D 1.58 in
CONTEMPORARY ARTWORK Figurative Children Oil Irinka Talakhadze NEW Painting
By Irinka Talakhadze
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Raised by an artist father, Irinka Talakhadze has been immersed in the world of art from an early age. Her father, a profound influence on her artistic journey, instilled in her a de...
Linen, Acrylic, Oil
$3,829
H 28.75 in W 24.81 in D 1.58 in
CONTEMPORARY ARTWORK Figurative Children Oil Irinka Talakhadze NEW Painting
By Irinka Talakhadze
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Raised by an artist father, Irinka Talakhadze has been immersed in the world of art from an early age. Her father, a profound influence on her artistic journey, instilled in her a de...
Linen, Oil, Acrylic
$8,122
H 40.16 in W 32.68 in D 1.58 in
CONTEMPORARY Figurative Girl Women Sport Oil Irinka Talakhadze Painting
By Irinka Talakhadze
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Raised by an artist father, Irinka Talakhadze has been immersed in the world of art from an early age. Her father, a profound influence on her artistic journey, instilled in her a de...
Linen, Oil, Acrylic
$3,600
H 14 in W 11 in D 2 in
"Odilon's Flowers" oil painting, expressionist still life, thick paint, unframed
By Darius Yektai
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
An oil painting by American Expressionist painter Darius Yektai. In his signature thick application of paint, Yektai molds a vase of flowers atop a simple footstool in primary colors...
Linen, Oil
$3,900
H 27 in W 22 in D 1 in
Keeper of the Red Thread: framed oil painting, abstract landscape, figure, birds
By Rachel Romano
Located in Bryn Mawr, PA
This is a signed, original oil painting by PA-based artist, Rachel Romano. It depicts a central figure in a white cloak surrounded by small white flowers and holding a long, red thre...
Linen, Oil, Panel
$9,000
H 32 in W 48 in
"Viva la France!" Contemporary Pop Art Modern Flag Minimal 23k Gold Oil Painting
By Charlotte Andry Gibbs
Located in Wellesley, MA
"Viva La France!," 23 Karat Gold Leaf and Oil on Canvas, 32 x 48 Inches, is inspired by the French flag, elegant and whimsical, however it can also be viewed as a pure geometric abs...
Gold Leaf
$1,500
H 25.6 in W 21.26 in D 0.79 in
"Pacem Appellant" (Deep Red, Oxblood, Dark, Black, Figures, Original Painting)
By Nicholas Evans
Located in Paris, IDF
PACEM APPELLANT 2026 Paris, France This oil painting is built on a ground of deep crimson and oxblood red, its surface richly textured with layered paint that feels worked and accum...
Linen, Oil, Acrylic
$9,000
H 31.5 in W 48 in
"Rising Sun" Japanese Flag POP, Minimal, 23K Gold Leaf /Oil Red and Gold Painting
By Charlotte Andry Gibbs
Located in Wellesley, MA
"Rising Sun" Oil, 23 Karat Gold Leaf, Linen 31.5 x 48 Inches Charlotte Gibbs’ "flag" and "star" paintings often reference the artist's interest in Pop art and sometimes incorporate 23 karat gold leaf in addition to oil paint, but not always. With its depiction of a graphically idealized Japanese flag...
Gold Leaf
Sea Foam 2
By Frédéric Choisel
Located in Burlingame, CA
'Sea Foam 2', 2022 is 47.25 x 35.5 inches, oil on linen painted by French-American artist Frédéric Choisel who explores the poetic intersection between nature and abstraction, drawin...
Linen, Oil
$2,500
H 12 in W 24 in
"Canada Gold" Small Red/Gold Flag of Canada in 23 Karat Gold Leaf and Oil Paint
By Charlotte Andry Gibbs
Located in Wellesley, MA
Charlotte Gibbs’ "flag" and "star" paintings often reference the artist's interest in Pop art and sometimes incorporate 23 karat gold leaf in addition to oil paint, but not always. ...
Gold Leaf
$8,500
H 26 in W 50 in
"U.S. Flag in White and Gold" Americana, Pop, 23 Karat Gold Leaf, Contemporary
By Charlotte Andry Gibbs
Located in Wellesley, MA
"U.S. Flag in White and Gold" 23 Karat Gold Leaf (White and Yellow Gold) and Oil on Linen 26 x 50 Inches Charlotte Gibbs’ "flag" and "star" paintings often reference the artist's ...
Gold Leaf
Green Rainmaker Study
By Kevin Sonmor
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Kevin Sonmor’s heroic, post-apocalyptic paintings […] reference dark brooding abstract landscapes animated with tight, intensely coloured, realistically ordered still-lifes. Hints of...
Linen, Oil
Sold
H 48 in W 60 in
One-Hundred and Fifty Portraits (The Baptist) - Race Horse in Umber and Crimson
By Kevin Sonmor
Located in Bloomfield, ON
A horse in mid-jump is rendered in rich umber and crimson and set almost in silhouette against a pale ground. In this powerful portrait of the race horse The Baptist artist Kevin Sonmor uses a neo-romantic vocabulary of atmospheric space and dramatic chiaroscuro. An MFA graduate of Concordia University and former Calgarian, Kevin Sonmor now lives and works in Montreal. He was born in Lacombe, Alberta in 1959. Sonmor reuses the artistic vocabulary reminiscent of Dutch 17th Still Life...
Linen, Oil
The Poet of Sweetgrass
By Kevin Sonmor
Located in Bloomfield, ON
The intensity and scale of this magnificent painting of a horse by artist Kevin Sonmor is rendered on three large canvases that come together to create this beautiful 19th century inspired work. Fragments of text are visible within the panels. The central long rifle evokes the image of sacrifice; the butt of a pistol emerges from the canvas on the left; the horse has a look of tired resignation, yet continues to stand with dignity. The blood red color of the fruit in the lower right panel are in sharp contrast to the more textured and somber tones of the rest of the work. An MFA graduate of Concordia University and former resident of Calgary, Kevin Sonmor has been living and working in Montreal for the past twelve years. Sonmor was born in Lacombe, Alberta in 1959. Sonmor reuses the artistic vocabulary reminiscent of Dutch 17th Still Life...
Linen, Oil