2025 Toronto Outdoor Art Fair
Call for Artists & Makers
Details
RECIPIENTS
Since 1961, TOAF has been instrumental in launching artists’ careers and bringing art into people’s everyday lives. TOAF is passionate about supporting artists and exceptional talents through awards, special programs and opportunities. With 150,000 annual visitors to Nathan Phillips Square, 100,000 website visitors, and 1 million annual page views, TOAF’s loyal community of art lovers continues to grow. Congratulations to our 2025 recipients who will be at this year's fair from July 11-13 at Nathan Phillips Square.
Toronto Outdoor Art Fair
Date: July 11-13, 2025
Location: Nathan Phillips Square, 100 Queen Street W, Toronto, ON
Alex Hall is a lens-based Chinese Canadian artist working inToronto, Canada. She specializes in photography, alternative processes, and mixed media art. She is currently majoring photography at the Ontario Collage of Art and Design University (OCADU) and was a former dancer with the NationalBallet of Canada.
Working with themes of the unknown, irony, and the past,Alex is drawn to material driven explorations. She thinks about how thepresentation of her work is heightened by the experimental materiality. Wantingthe viewer to leave her work with more questions and curiosity about the worldaround us.
Supriya James is a Toronto-based landscape artist of Indo-Guyanese heritage. After a rewarding, over 25-year-career as a Communications Consultant, she has furthered her proclivity for expression by undertaking a second undergraduate degree at OCAD University, Toronto, Ontario (Drawing & Painting Program, 2021-2025 - BFA Hon). She is a recipient of the 2025 Dean’s Scholarship for the Interdisciplinary Master’s in Art, Media and Design (IAMD) MFA program which she will be commencing at OCAD University in September, 2025. Her body of work comprises paintings of Canadian and Guyanese landscapes which are embedded with political and metaphysical explorations of identity, ancestral history, and temporality that form her core consciousness.
Jenelle Smith (b. 2001,Mississauga, Ontario) is a first generation Jamaican-Canadian visual artist based in Toronto, Ontario. Jenelle is an emerging artist delving into the intricate concepts of the mind through her dreamlike work.Working in digital and analog image-based media, Jenelle aims to speak upon thought provoking topics such as, mental health, technology, race, and family.
Jenelle is currently pursuing her undergraduate degree in Photography at OCAD University. Jenelle strives to challenge conventional perceptions and spark conversations through her work.
Raahim Tariq is a Lahore-born,Toronto-based artist in his final year of Experimental Animation. Specializing in 2D animation with elements of stop-motion, his work blends humor, fantastical storytelling, and South Asian cultural influences. With a background in fine arts, digital illustration, and graphic design, Raahim’s practice bridges traditional and digital media to explore identity and narrative through richly textured visuals.
https://tariqraahim9.wixsite.com/raahim-tariq
IG: @_raahimart_
Grace Darakjian is a multidisciplinary abstract artist attending OCAD University who is primarily creating hard-edge acrylic paintings, as well as intricate multimedia drawings. Grace utilizes the most basic principles of acrylic paint in order to create flat, artificial, and almost digital-looking fields of space, which showcase colour relationships, extremes in the universe, and the complexity of line.
IG: @gracesketchbook
Erica Gibbs is a multidisciplinary artist and illustrator based in Toronto and Mississauga. This summer, she will graduate from OCAD University with a BFA in Drawing and Painting with a Minor in Illustration. Her hybrid practice traverses the digital and physical realms to produce paintings, illustrations, comics, sculptures, and installations.Erica’s recent thesis work explores how contemporary technology impacts intimacy and communication within everyday life.
Haley Meyer is an oil painter and intaglio printmaker based Toronto.Her work explores the connection between memory loss and transitional places, using fleeting images taken while in transit to reflect how memories slip, fade, and blur over time. The world seen from these spaces is impermanent and distorted, mirroring the way memory loss fractures and reshapes past experiences. Through painting and etching, she is able to organize, preserve, and remember fading experiences. Haley has exhibited her work across Ontario and is graduating from OCAD University’s Drawing & Painting program with a minor in Printmaking & Publications.
Kiran Senthilnathan is a 22-year-old multidisciplinary artist currently pursuing a degree in Experimental Animation at OCAD University in Toronto. Her practice is rooted in the exploration of the body and its narratives, often drawing from traditional Indian art techniques to foster cultural rediscovery and dialogue. Working across various mediums, she seeks to bridge historical aesthetics with contemporary expression. Senthilnathan has been recognized with a Silver Key from Scholastics and recently exhibited her work at the Illuminarium in downtown Toronto.
IG: @kiran.582
Hi, my name is Miriam Altamira.I am a designer and multidisciplinary artist, primarily working with textiles and ceramics. My work combines bold colours and organic shapes in playful and often unexpected ways. I aim to create pieces that feel friendly, joyful, and humorous. I am graduating from theTextile Design program at OCAD University. My goal is to represent joy and nostalgia through the use of colour and illustrations in everyday objects for the home. I believe that translating creativity and art into functional items is a vital part of my practice. I focus on designing objects that are not only practical but also imbued with personal meaning and intention.
https://cargocollective.com/miriamaltamira
IG: @born_monday_ and @miriam.altamira
MinSeo(May) Whee is a jewellery artist in her final year of the Material Art and Design program at OCAD University. Her work explores narrative-based design, drawing on treasured memories and emotional connections. Combining fine art elements with traditional techniques and 3D scanned objects, she creates visually rich, meaningful pieces that explore color, texture, and line.
minseomaywhee.format.com
IG: @minseowhee
OPPORTUNITY DESCRIPTION
The Centre for Emerging Artists & Designers is excited to announce the return of our partnership with Toronto Outdoor Art Fair (TOAF), Canada’s leading contemporary outdoor & online art fair. The TOAF Career Launcher is for students in the Illustration, Material Art & Design, Photography, Integrated Media, Sculpture and Installation, Drawing and Painting, Interdisciplinary Master’s in Art, Media and Design, Indigenous Visual Culture and Printmaking/Publications programs. The selected students will have a free opportunity at the 64th TOAF to showcase their artworks in-person and online at TOAF.ca.
Since 1961, TOAF has been instrumental in launching artists’ careers and bringing art into people’s everyday lives. TOAF is passionate about supporting artists and exceptional talents through awards, special programs and opportunities. With 170,000 annual visitors to Nathan Phillips Square, 100,000 website visitors, and 1 million annual page views, TOAF’s loyal community of art lovers continues to grow.
TOAF has always reserved a portion of the Fair to emerging and student artists, and has hosted many well-known Canadian artists early in their careers including: Barbara Astman, Edward Burtynsky and many others. This is an amazing opportunity to get yourself out there, nurture an audience, and sell your work! Student applications will be reviewed by the TOAF external jury for final selection.
CATEGORY DESCRIPTIONS
3D Works: Three-dimensional artworks, using additive or reductive techniques, including freestanding sculptures, reliefs, assemblages etc. created using either traditional or experimental materials.
2D Works: Two-dimensional, created using one or more physical material, including Drawing, Printmaking, Illustration, Collage, and Mixed Media works, etc.
Craft & Design: Hand-crafted objects (functional or decorative) created using fine craft and/or industrial design practices including, Ceramics, Glass, Jewellery, Textile, Wood/Furniture, etc. Exclude machine-screen patterns or other forms of mass production, and factory-produced wearable items regardless of additional modification.
Painting: Oil, acrylic, encaustic, watercolour, inks, etc.
Photography & Digital Media: Photographic prints made from the artist’s original image, and/or digitally manipulated images created from original artist images, and/or other sourced material.
SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
- 6 images of your artwork (a consistent portfolio of work)
- 1 Installation, grouping or booth image (your work in context)
- Artist statement (500 characters max)
- A short description of your process, your medium/method (200 characters)
- Copy of timetable and student card
INFO SESSION (TOAF Career Launcher)
Tuesday, January 21, 2025
3:00 - 4:00 PM ET
Click hereto RSVP
Join our upcoming info session to learn more about Toronto Outdoor Art Fair and resources for putting together a strong application.
PARTNER
Toronto Outdoor Art Fair
TOAF.ca/call-for-artists
@torontooutdoorart
Date: July TBC, 2025 (exact dates areTBC and will be announced before the New Year, but most likely will be the second weekend of July).
Location: In-person at Nathan Phillips Square, 100 Queen StreetW, Toronto, ON & Online at TOAF.ca.
RATE
- Free opportunity at the 64th TOAF to showcase their artworks in-person and online at TOAF.ca
QUALIFICATIONS
- ILLU, MAAD, PHOTO, INTM, SCIN, DRPT, IAMD, INVC or PRNT/PUBL students with 15+ credits in their graduating year (2025)
- Multidisciplinary artists can submit up to 3 different applications in 3 different categories
● You must apply individually under your own name
● Priority will be given to applicants who have not previously received a Career Launcher opportunity.
DEADLINE
Friday, March 7, 2025 (11:59 PM)
SUBMISSION LINK
Click here to Apply
FREE to apply
Use the discount code ‘TOAF64-CL-Student’ during checkout
QUESTIONS?
Contact Sophie Stein
Artist Relations Coordinator
sophie@TOAF.ca
APPLICATION SUPPORT
The OCAD U RBC CEAD is committed to promoting substantive equality for equity-seeking groups that are under-represented in the creative sector. We encourage applications from first-time applicants to the program and graduates of equity-seeking communities including racialized and Indigenous persons, persons with disabilities, and persons of all sexual orientations and gender identities / expressions. Applicants are welcome to advise the CEAD of any accommodations needed to ensure you have access to a fair and equitable process.
Applicants who need assistance with their submissions are invited to connect with the RBC CEAD for Advising support. Click here to learn more about how to book an advising appointment.
ACCESSIBILITY
Applicants who have concerns about meeting a Career Launcher application deadline are invited to connect with the CEAD in order to discuss possible alternatives. We encourage all who might require assistance with the application process to reach out to determine available support. Outreach of this nature should be undertaken at least one week prior to the published application deadline.
