Image: Sunflowers Infused in Pink (2022) by Esther Doyeon Kim.
OCAD U students and graduates recognized with several awards at Toronto Outdoor Art Fair
The 61st annual Toronto Outdoor Art Fair (TOAF) has announced this year's award winners including numerous OCAD University artists. A combination of current students and graduates have been recognized with awards including the Best of Photography & Digital Media Award and the Power Plant Emerging Artist Award. Current Drawing and Painting student Mahir Siraj earned one of the most esteemed awards, the Best of Student Award, which includes a $1,000 prize, a residency at Artscape Gibraltar Point on Toronto Island and a solo exhibition at Artscape Youngplace.
TOAF is Canada’s largest and longest-running contemporary outdoor art fair and has played a key role in launching the careers of Canadian artists through its Awards Program. Since the 1960s the fair has awarded over $1 million to exhibited artists and have boosted the careers of emerging artists through pubic recognition. This year $40,000 worth of cash and in-kind contributions have been awarded to selected exhibitors.
The celebrated works take a range of forms including charcoal drawings on paper, oil paintings and photographs and will be on view at Toronto's Nathan Philips Square from July 15 to 17, 2022.
2022 Toronto Outdoor Art Fair Award Winners
Mahir Siraj, Drawing & Painting (current)
Best of Student Award
Mahir Siraj is an Eritrean-born artist who lives and works in Toronto. He is currently in the Drawing and Painting program at OCAD U. Siraj employs metaphors and symbols in his work to investigate the relationship between memory and meaning in the context of personal and social identities. Through the series Allegories, he creates a visual language that delves deeper into his personal and metaphysical inquiries. Image: On Atrocities (2021) by Mahir Siraj. Acrylic on canvas.
Maureen O'Connor, Graphic Design (1993)
Best of Photography & Digital Media Award
Maureen O'Connor is a fine art photographer living in Toronto who graduated from OCAD U in 1993. O'Connor is a life-long animal lover. The collection of photographs she is exhibiting for TOAF has been produced with the cooperation of local sanctuaries. Some of the featured animals are rescues from fur farms while others are non-releasable wildlife. They were brought and photographed onsite at homes in Toronto in advance of their redevelopment. By photographing Canadian animals in abandoned and crumbling domestic architecture, Maureen O’Connor raises questions about how nature and the built environment intersect. She sees these spaces as transformative, evoking memory and showing the beauty and fragility of the animals and architecture
Image: The Vigil (2021) by Maureen O'Connor. Chromogenic photograph.
Mina Nowzari, Photography (2021)
Photography & Digital Media Award (Honourable Mention)
Mina Nowzari is an artist working across a wide range of media including photography, mail art and site-specific interventions. Considering the boundary between public and private is a central focus of Nowzari's work. Her artistic exploration includes documenting the objects in people's bags and performing private sphere activities in photo booths across Florence and Berlin. As of late, Nowzari has focused on mail art as her primary medium. By questioning the notion of access in the art world and embracing the serendipity of the postal system, she creates connections that traverse distance and time. Image: The Kiss (2021) by Mina Nowzari. Digital photograph.
Katherine Curci, Drawing & Painting (2014)
Gladstone House Award
Katherine Curci is a Toronto-based contemporary landscape artist who completed for Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drawing and Painting at OCAD U in 2014. She also completed a Certificate of Advanced Visual Studies in OCAD U's Self-Directed Studio Program in Florence, Italy. Through the study of land, sea and cityscape, Curci explores the consuming contrast between light and shadow. Each charcoal drawing is an emotional representation of our ever-changing environment and mental state of being. These standing images, although beautiful, conjure feelings of uncertainty in their use of texture, shadow and reflection. Image: Vermillion Peak (2022) by Katherine Curci. Charcoal and conte crayon on paper.
Esther Doyeon Kim, Drawing & Painting (2020)
The Power Plant Emerging Artist Award
Esther Kim is a South Korean Canadian raised in Vancouver and currently based in Toronto. She completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts from OCAD U in the Drawing and Painting program in 2020. Kim’s recent works explore simplicity, flat forms and animated colours to create expressive, whimsical and joyous moments. Image: A vibrant room (2021) by Esther Doyeon Kim. Acrylic on wooden board.
Sofia Escobar, Material Art & Design (2014)
Artscape Emerging Artist Award
Sofia Escobar is a Toronto-based artist born and raised in Peru and Ecuador. She completed her studies at OCAD University in Toronto in 2014, majoring in Material Art & Design, specializing in Fibre. Driven by an ongoing interest in material and space, Escobar uses textile construction techniques and processes, to build intricate interwoven thread sculptures that explore themes of architecture and optical illusion. Her recent work explores new ways in which textiles could behave with their surroundings through material language, technology, and participatory exchanges with the viewer. Image: Macro Weave (2021) by Sofia Escobar. Thread and acrylic.
Shevon Lewis, Illustration (2019)
Emerging Artists by Emerging Curator Award
Shevon Lewis is a Toronto based Sri Lankan-Canadian artist. He is a graduate of the OCAD U Illustration program and currently teaches at the University in the Drawing and Painting program. Lewis uses traditional representational oil painting techniques to interrogate human conditions. His observational paintings map an ecology of lived experiences and archetypes expressed through individuality and transnational society, holding the painterly gesture as part of the process of healing and elevating the human spirit. Image: Interlocked (2021) by Shevon Lewis. Oil on cradled panel.