OCAD U CAREER LAUNCHERS

Danielle Vincent

Danielle Vincent is aToronto-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 her work across shows in Ontario and has been awarded first place in multiple juried exhibitions. She is completing her BFA in Drawing and Painting at OCADUniversity.

Website: www.daniellevincent.format.com
Instagram: @dee.vee.art

Hyesoo Kim 

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.

Website:  www.hyesooart.com
Instagram: @hyesooart

Maariyah Mohiuddin

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. 

Website: www.maariyahmohiuddin.format.com
Instagram @maariyah991

Lu Zhang

Lu Zhang, a skilled artist and graphic designerbased in Toronto, Canada, finds inspiration from the natural world's numerousspecies, displaying a sharp observant eye. She cultivates a separate creativedomain that genuinely captures the marvellous by fusing concrete components ofher environment with fantastical speculations.  Lu's art is manifested via a diverse range of methods andmaterials, including watercolour, acrylic, oil stick, ink pen, computerpainting, 2D animation, and 3D modelling. She expertly constructs a unique andidentifiable personal style throughout these several mediums, showcasing herexperience and originality in the industry.

Website: www.roadzlu.format.com
Instagram @roadz_lu

Simone Aslan 

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 justas 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.

Website:  www.perpetualitch.com
Instagram: @perpetual.itch

Paige Bowen

Paige Bowen is a multidisciplinary artist, student, and creative fromSouth Africa. She graduated from George Brown College’s Foundational ArtCertificate 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. 

Website: www.paige-bowen.format.com
Instagram: @butterflypaige

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.

Website: www.stellaobedi.com
Instagram: @artist._.stella

Deepikah Rahul Bhardwaj

Deepikah (She/Her) is an Indian interdisciplinary artistbased in Tkaronto (Toronto) and holds an M.F.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts fromOCAD University. She makes paintings to express issues related to gender,motherhood and isolation. Recipient of the Ontario Graduate Scholarship in2023, her thesis show, a place to fall apart,  includedeight speculative artworks that explored ideas of interconnectedness andrelationships with more than humans.

Website: www.deepikah.com
Instagram: @deepikah
Facebook:  DeepikahCo
Linkedin: deepikahrb