Staff

Jay Isaac
Founder & Director

Jay is Peter Estey Fine Art’s founder and director. He grew up in Saint John, New Brunswick, the son of antique dealers and auctioneers Tim and Liz Isaac. He graduated from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in 1997. His primary profession is visual art, exhibiting nationally and internationally for 25 years. He is the recipient of numerous awards including most recently a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant, Chalmers Fellowship, and a Canada Council for the Arts Grant, and his work is housed in many public and private collections in Canada. He was the publisher of the art magazine Hunter and Cook (2009 - 2012) and ran the @nationalgalleryofcanada Instagram account (2014 - 2016). He is represented by Paul Petro Contemporary Art in Toronto. Jay has a wide reaching interest and knowledge of Canadian Art history, with a focus on folk, outsider and idiosyncratic practices.

Caitlin Lapeña
Director

Caitlin is a visual artist and the co-director at Peter Estey Fine Art. She was born in Toronto and grew up in Northern California, moving back to Canada to pursue her education. Caitlin studied fine art and art history at Queen’s University, and then received a postgraduate certificate at Humber College in Arts Administration and Cultural Management. Caitlin joined Peter Estey Fine Art & Auctions in 2018 and was instrumental in creating the online auction component of the business. Caitlin’s areas of interest include female artists, folk, outsider and Inuit art.

About

Peter Estey Fine Art, established in 2018, is an artist-run art dealer specializing in Canadian and international fine, folk, and Inuit art. Our mandate is to provide an accessible platform for purchasing and selling artwork, create a niche market for overlooked and idiosyncratic artists, and to offer works of historic importance.

We are the first art dealer in Canada to implement the Artist’s Resale Right, providing artists with 5% of the sale price.

We are always interested in buying or consigning Canadian, folk, and Inuit art as well as select American and international works.

Press

“Artists should share in resale profits. It’s an old idea, but not a reality in Canada yet”, CBC Arts, January 2022

“Artist-Run Auction House Pays Out Artist Resale Right—Even Though It’s Not Legislated Yet”, Canadian Art, October 2019

“Auction Houses in North America Don’t Have to Give Artists a Cut of Sales. This Small Canadian Business Decided to Do It Anyway”, Artnet News, December 2019

“Son of Saint John Auctioneer Does Business In His Late”, Telegraph Journal, June 2019