OCAD University’s RBC Centre for Emerging Artists & Designers is excited to announce Chenwei"Claire" Sun, Donia Shami, Ito Palaganas and Meelana Kravchenko as the recipients of the 2026 401 Richmond Illustration Studio Career Launchers! The recipients will be awarded one year of free studio space in 401 Richmond from June 2026 to May 2027. This award is generously supported by the Dalglish Family Foundation, whose commitment to emerging artists and designers makes this opportunity possible.
Chenwei"Claire" Sun bio:
Chenwei "Claire" Sun is an illustrator and intaglio printmaker who grew up in a small city in China and now lives in downtown Toronto. Claire graduated from OCAD with a bachelor's degree of illustration, though she spent a few years studying architecture at UofT first. Her art practice is spontaneous and iterative, letting playful characters flow across the page in organic streams of consciousness. Claire's art varies in material and subject but is always expressive, full of motion, emotion, and humour. She's inspired by city life, crowds, and the sparks of connection between people. She hopes her art can express the joyful chaos of her ESL, ADHD brain.
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Donia Shami bio:
Donia Shami is an Arab-Canadian, mixed media artist and illustrator, who uses colour and shape to explore the surrealities of existence. She is extremely passionate about mixed media and the dynamics of layering opacities and textures, but is also normally obsessed with acrylic based mediums, iced coffee, and her rat-like cat.
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Ito Palaganas bio:
Ito Palaganas is an illustrator working in the visual arts and music scene in Toronto, Canada.
Born in Manila and growing up in Toronto, I've been focused on exploring and training within the arts for my entire life. After briefly studying Jazz at York University, then transitioning to graduate from Sheridan College for Art Fundamentals and continuing my studies at OCADu for Illustration, my practice is constantly evolving. Working on projects for; music, public art, children's illustration and even visual assets for corporate companies, I continually seek growth and aim to find the best ways to communicate our messages through design and illustration.
Based in Toronto, this city has given me so much to offer towards my perspective on the arts, music and the cultures around us. My work focuses on blending those influences through my own lens.
As a part of the Filipino diaspora, one of my primary objectives is to bring representation and empowerment to marginalized voices and explore the often forgotten and tucked away niches just outside of the mainstream, discovering more ways to connect, and express the humanity within all of us.
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Meelana Kravchenko bio:
I am a painter and illustrator. For my display at TOAF, I have created a series of oil paintings to explore feelings of the inhabited space, especially ones that arise with familiarity. In my general practice, I use repetitive imagery and simplistic composition to create insulated environments with distinct moods. Some recurring themes in my painting and illustration work are solitude, mystery, and human-animal relation.
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Learn more about our Career Launcher opportunities.
