Mary Pratt’s (1935-2018) paintings celebrate ordinary household or everyday objects and events – jars of jelly, fish on plastic wrap, cracked eggs, a bowl of fruit – in a realist yet flamboyant style. In the 1970s, Pratt turned to depictions of women and their personal, domestic lives. In these works, she transformed banal, everyday tasks into ritual.

Pratt studied at Mount Alison University, Sackville, NB, graduating in 1961. She studied with painter Alex Colville, whose influence is seen in her movement to realism in her paintings. 

Pratt was named Companion of the Order of Canada in 1996 and has received nine honorary doctorates from universities across Canada. Her work is found in prominent public, corporate and private collections including those of the National Gallery of Canada, The Rooms, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, the New Brunswick Museum, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of Ontario and Canada House, UK.