GradEx 111: Toronto’s largest free art and design exhibition returns May 6 to 10

One of Toronto’s favourite events, OCAD University’s 111^th annual graduate exhibition, returns from May 6 to 10 at 100 and 115 McCaul St., showcasing works by more than 800 emerging artists, designers and digital media makers.

GradEx 111, the city’s largest free art and design exhibition, opens on Wednesday, May 6 at 6 p.m. with a celebration and party in OCAD U’s Butterfield Park. Hullmark and BGO are the exhibition’s presenting sponsors.

More than 40,000 visitors are expected to attend this year’s show, which features works by graduating students in every undergraduate program. GradEx 111 is also the best place to buy affordable art and design from emerging artists and designers. Original art can be purchased or commissioned at student pop-up shops and at an alumni marketplace featuring original artwork and handmade goods.

“GradEx is one of the clearest ways to see what OCAD University contributes to Ontario and Canada: graduates who bring creative confidence, artistic judgment, technical fluency and design-thinking skills to a world that increasingly needs people who can imagine, make, adapt and solve complex problems,” says OCAD University President and Vice-Chancellor Ana Serrano. “It is also one of Toronto’s great spring traditions, a joyful celebration where the public can experience the energy and imagination of the next generation of artists and designers."

Among the hundreds of artists and designers showing their work at GradEx 111 are:

• Industrial designer Alex Chang who has created a prototype for an e-bike with AI sensing technologies that helps guide cyclists through car and pedestrian traffic. 
• Visual artist Sabrina Holmes, a reservist in the Royal Canadian Navy, who paints landscapes from her time at sea. Her work explores the environment and emotional ties that military members experience being away from home for extended periods of time.
• Sculpture/Installation artist Matt Trinh, who started his career as a welder in Calgary, has created a man-made kinetic sculpture beachscape to make us think about what it truly means to coexist harmoniously with nature.
• Nigerian multidisciplinary artist and designer Chimemelie Okafor whose oil painting practice uses layered colour and pattern to create visually compelling works, inspired by the material traditions of West African textiles. 
• Industrial designer Kai Principe Rapa who has designed a wearable tech interface to help people with Parkinson’s monitor their symptoms with a more informed and supportive experience, empowering them to feel more in control of their condition.
• Game designers Kayli Chow, Giuliana Costa and Cole Kassirer who created, Beam It Up, Blorp!, a video game where players are an alien piloting an UFO who go on quests, beam up creatures, solve physics-based puzzles and explore different worlds. 

GRADEX 111 HOURS – 100 and 115 McCaul St.

• Wednesday, May 6: 6 to 11 p.m. 
• Thursday, May 7 and Friday May 8: 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
• Saturday, May 9 and Sunday, May 10: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.