Since 1961, TOAF has been instrumental in launching artists’ careers and bringing art into people’s everyday lives. TOAF is passionate about supporting artists and exceptional talents through awards, special programs and opportunities. With 150,000 annual visitors to Nathan Phillips Square, 100,000 website visitors, and 1 million annual page views, TOAF’s loyal community of art lovers continues to grow. Congratulations to our 2024 recipients who will be at this year's fair from July 12-14 at Nathan Phillips Square!
Danielle Vincent is a Toronto-based artist specializing in oil painting. Her practice concerns the search for certainty and stability in the unknown of transitional periods. With her realistic renderings of familiar domestic spaces, she creates an entrance and exit to the in-between spaces found in everyday life that invite the viewer to create personal narratives and reflect on their thoughts and feelings about change and transition. Vincent has exhibited herwork across shows in Ontario and has been awarded first place in multiple juried exhibitions. She is completing her BFA in Drawing and Painting at OCAD University.
Hyesoo Kim is an illustrator based in Toronto and Newmarket. Inspired by nature, the cosmos, and reflections from her personal experiences, her work focuses on capturing warmth and serenity in everyday and imagined environments. Using digital paintings and mixed media works on paper with a passion for storytelling, she employs emotions and imagery that carries narratives about belonging and embracing a sense of self. She will be graduating in the spring of 2024 from OCAD University’s Illustration program and has previously received a BA from University of Toronto.
My name is Lulin Ye, and I'm an emerging illustrator based in Toronto. I am excellent at experimenting with vibrant colours and adding a variety of colours to my pieces to give them energy and dynamism. Every artwork I make is a representation of my life journey, inspired by emotions and the natural world, with the intention of connecting with those who have gone through similar experiences. I aim to spread positivity and joy through the use of artistic language, and I desire viewers to discover their own experiences within the interaction of colours and abstract shapes in my works.
Maariyah Mohiuddin is an emerging artist based in the GTA. Much of her practice involves depicting her Indian culture while also commenting on the intersectionality between her layered identities that overlap through the context of living in the west during a contemporary age. Her work combines different aspects of culture, religion, and modernity in a way that serves as a source of representation. Maariyah is a recent graduate from OCAD University and has acquired her BFA in Drawing and Painting.
Lu Zhang, a skilled artist and graphic designer based in Toronto, Canada, finds inspiration from the natural world's numerous species, displaying a sharp observant eye. She cultivates a separate creative domain that genuinely captures the marvellous by fusing concrete components of her environment with fantastical speculations. Lu's art is manifested via a diverse range of methods and materials, including watercolour, acrylic, oil stick, ink pen, computer painting, 2D animation, and 3D modelling. She expertly constructs a unique and identifiable personal style throughout these several mediums, showcasing her experience and originality in the industry.
Mark Krzepis is a Toronto illustrator whose work muddies the line between high and low subject matter. Inspired by literature, music, art history, and the absurd, he draws upon themes of human nature relevant in both fine art and lowbrow illustration. Through a colourful complementary palette and animated shapes, Mark taps into the rich knowledge of traditional illustration. He has illustrated cover art for Toronto artists such as BADBADNOTGOOD and Charlotte Day Wilson, conducted interviews with creatives like Wolfgang Tillmans, and exhibited in art galleries in both Canada and the United States.
Simone Aslan is a craftsperson currently based in Toronto, Ontario. While jewellery is their main passion, lampmaking has become an integral part of their practice. Hands, eyes, and teeth are motifs common to their work and central in their process. It is the artist’s belief that process is just as important as the final product, from an environmental as well as a ritualistic standpoint. The focus on process is reflected in the choice of motions, materials and minutes spent on each piece.
Paige Bowen is a multidisciplinary artist, student, and creative from South Africa. She graduated from George Brown College’s Foundational Art Certificate in 2021 and OCAD University’s BFA in Drawing And Painting in 2024.She draws on her experience as an international nomad to study ideas of home, and connection - to both family and nature and isolation. Paige works in many mediums including but not limited to Woodcarving, Embroidery, and Painting. Most recently Paige has been featured in the 2024 Awenda Inspired Exhibit at the Ada Sleight Gallery at OCAD University as well as the 2024 Inspiration Studios Art Auction.
Sarah Young is an emerging artist born and based in Toronto making paintings primarily in oil. After completing her BFA at OCAD University Sarah is going onto study at NSCAD University in Halifax to complete her MFA in studio art. She is interested in exploring family history, memory, and feminine identity using re-contextualized imagery. Creating sensitive aesthetic experiences through painting, Sarah works with a wide range of visual language and draws inspiration from lived experiences and urban culture.
Stella Obdei
Stella is a Tanzanian Canadian mixed media artist based in Toronto. Working with traditional mediums which she combines with digital collages, and African wax fabrics. She creates works looking at themes of diaspora, identity, memory loss, language, and displacement. In her pieces she is negotiating the ideas of diaspora, and her own identity as a settler in Canada. As she feels displaced and disconnected with her home country and where she currently lives. Through creating her work Stella hopes to create feelings of empathy, familiarity, and connect with her viewers.
Deepikah Rahul Bhardwaj
Deepikah (She/Her) is an Indian interdisciplinary artist based in Tkaronto (Toronto) and holds an M.F.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts from OCAD University. She makes paintings to express issues related to gender, motherhood and isolation. Recipient of the Ontario Graduate Scholarship in 2023, her thesis show, a place to fall apart, included eight speculative artworks that explored ideas of inter connectedness and relationships with more than humans.
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