OCAD University has opened applications for THIRDSPACE: Emerging Artist Summer Residency 2026, a month-long summer art program designed to support emerging artists, recent graduates and early-career creators seeking mentorship, studio access and professional development in Toronto.
Led by OCAD U's 2026 Summer Artist & Mentor-in-Residence Erdem Taşdelen, the 2026 residency explores the theme Staging the Unseen, encouraging artists to push the boundaries of conventional storytelling through text, image, sound and video. During the course of the month-long residency, participants will have access to open and specialized studios at OCAD U to develop new work while receiving mentorship, collaborating with peers and engaging with Toronto’s vibrant arts community through gallery visits and conversations with professionals across the sector. The residency will culminate in a public exhibition at the OCAD U Graduate Gallery.
Building on the success of the inaugural 2025 edition, THIRDSPACE continues to foster experimentation, collaboration and critical dialogue among emerging artists. As one past participant shared, "THIRDSPACE is perfect for emerging artists in that it acts as a footing ground… showing us the importance of thematic works and to think beyond the canvas.”
Erdem Taşdelen is an artist based in Tkaronto/Toronto, Canada. Through the use of diverse materials and media, he constructs semi-fictional narratives that incorporate unique historical figures, events and texts to implicate contemporary sociopolitical realities. At the core of his artistic practice lies an exploration of how narrative interacts with its form, and how different forms “stage” narratives.
Taşdelen has exhibited at venues including The Power Plant, Aga Khan Museum and Mercer Union in Toronto; Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; VOX, Montréal; Framer Framed, Amsterdam; Museum für Neue Kunst, Freiburg; and Pera Museum, Istanbul. He has been an artist-in-residence at the Delfina Foundation and Studio Voltaire, London; Hangar, Lisbon; Rupert, Vilnius; and KulturKontakt, Vienna. He was awarded the Joseph S. Stauffer Prize in Visual Arts by the Canada Council in 2016, the Charles Pachter Prize.
Residency details: