David Mirvish Gallery was a contemporary, commercial art gallery run by David Mirvish, within the Markham Street art community in Mirvish Village in Toronto. It opened in 1963 and closed in 1978.^{[citation needed]} Artists at the gallery were best known for Color Field and Post-painterly Abstraction works. Mirvish assembled the Mirvish Collection, consisting of mostly contemporary artwork including artists he represented, lending it out to museums around the United States and Europe after the gallery's closure. In 2012, Mirvish announced plans to open a gallery to display these works, at planned condominium project Mirvish+Gehry Toronto.

David Mirvish's father, Ed Mirvish, was proprietor of Honest Ed's, a landmark discount retailer established in Toronto in 1948. In 1952, he purchased a house on Markham Street to expand backwards, using original tactics to thwart the area's residential zoning. In 1959, the ward's alderman was displeased by traffic jams near the store, and persuaded City Council to adopt a 1960 report urging the store to build a parking lot. The neighbourhood, which had originally supported the construction of a parking lot, now opposed rezoning to allow it under a new alderman. Mirvish could put a lot behind the Victorian houses, but could not tear them down.

Around the same time, David's mother Anne Mirvish spent five months studying sculpture at The New School in Greenwich Village, a result of the urging of artist Paul Burlin. As a youth, she painted and took art lessons, and her family were active in their appreciation of music. Upon marriage to Ed, those interests were largely displaced to help with the business. While Anne was away in New York City, David, who had just graduated from high school, told his father that he wanted to run an art gallery. Since Anne had wanted David to attend university, a decision was postponed until her return; after overcoming some initial shock, she endorsed his plan. Anne Mirvish intended to get a studio in the Gerrard Street Village, an artist's neighbourhood. Just then, the community was displaced for a new parking lot for the Toronto General Hospital.

Given the variety of factors, the Mirvishes began to convert the area into art galleries and studios. Among those who leased space was prominent art dealer Jack Pollock. During the renovations of the houses, long-time Mirvish associate Yale Simpson suggested owning both sides of the street would look better; Ed bought the remaining twelve houses, bringing the total to 23. Studios and galleries were joined by shops and restaurants. While the City had issues with its zoning for many years, the area was eventually named an official tourist attraction by the City, and designated Mirvish Village.

Frankly, I thought I could get paid for sitting in the back room and just reading. This sounded like a good profession. But, in fact, you don't get much time to read in the art world, except maybe art history. It turned out to be awfully exciting. By choice, I tended to show the same people year after year and didn't try to represent everything that was going on in the art world. I felt that most of the interesting painters were working in an abstract manner and this was the most difficult way to make a successful paintings at that time. So I concentrated on them ... I had the gallery in my younger, battling days, which were my more assertive, argumentative days. In the theatre, I'm in my more mellow, middle-aged period, where I'm involved with something that puts me in touch with many more people and where the scale is vastly different.

— David Mirvish, The Toronto Star, 15 May 1993, reflecting on the occasion of the opening of Princess of Wales Theatre, Toronto.

David opened his gallery in one of the renovated houses in September 1963; his was one of the first businesses to open in the new Markham Street community. He was joined by other privately owned facilities, including Gallery Samou and Pollock Gallery. The Globe referred to the neighbourhood as "the Markham Street art community", but after the older Mirvish purchased the other side of the street, the area became known as Mirvish Village. Eventually, the neighbourhood would include boutiques, bookstores and restaurants.

Also in September 1963, Ed Mirvish opened the newly renovated Royal Alexandra Theatre, on King Street.