News - Career Launchers

Career Launcher News

Celebrating the achievements and successes of our Career Launcher artists, designers and partners.

Announcing Luisé Cineros as the recipient of the 2024 Writers Guild of Canada Screenwriting Awards Statue Career Launcher!

Luisé Cisneros is a Mexican-Canadian artist who moved to Canada in 2005 from Mexico. A year later, ze sold hir first piece to the city of Toronto. In 2015, Luisé won the Los Diez Award at the Latin American Ilustración, and has exhibited in New York City, Brooklyn, and Bogotá, Colombia. Ze received the Jurors’ Choice Award twice at the Pride London Festival Art Show in 2017 and 2018. Most recently, in 2023, ze won the Craft Ontario Community Award for hir solo show, "Queer Quinte: Memory and Celebration," at the Quinte Arts Council in Belleville. Currently, ze is in hir final year at OCAD University, where ze predominantly creates works in sculpture, installation, and wearable art. Through these mediums, ze critiques the barriers, discrimination, and violence faced as a BIPOC and 2SLGBTQ+ individual living in the diaspora, while also celebrating hir Mexican heritage, cultural traditions, and identity as a Canadian immigrant.

Website: www.luisecisneros.com
Instagram: @luisecisnerosart

Announcing Ernesto Cabral de Luna as the recipient of the 2025 DesignTO Exhibition Stantec Window Gallery Career Launcher!

Ernesto Cabral de Luna is a Mexican lens-based artist working in Toronto. Utilizing both analog and digital processes, he merges experimental techniques with sculpture and installation, printing onto unconventional and manipulated surfaces to emphasize the multi-dimensionality and materiality of the image.

Ernesto's work will be shown from December 21, 2024 to March 20, 2025 at the Stantec Window Gallery as part of the 2025 DesignTO festival.

Announcing Ellie White as the recipient of the 2024 Hullmark 1071 King West Temporary Hoarding Mural Career Launcher!

Ellie White is an illustrator, designer, and printmaker from Toronto, Ontario. She’s known for her funky style, unique illustrations, and killer brisket.

Announcing Tiffany Chin and Sara Shoghi as the recipients of the 2024 Hullmark 115 Larchmount Permanent Interior Mural Career Launcher!

OCAD University’s RBC Centre for Emerging Artists & Designers is excited to announce Tiffany Chin and Sara Shoghi as the recipients of the 2024 Hullmark 115 Larchmount Permanent Interior Mural Career Launcher.

Announcing Amir Khoshnevis as the recipient of the 2024 Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival, Graphic Designer Career Launcher

Amir Khoshnevis is a graphic designer based in Tkaronto. He is Intrigued by systems, language and the intersection of code and design. Amir is making strides to predicate his practice on experimental publishing, book design, interactivity and web.

Announcing Agnes Wong as the recipient of the 2024 Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival, Creative Artist Career Launcher

Agnes Wong (she/her) is a multidisciplinary designer, artist, and curator based in Tkaronto/Toronto and Hong Kong.
Through an experimental approach, Agnes’ creative practice seeks to integrate themes of displacement, fragmentation, and temporality together in an interdisciplinary blend of digital and moving image, photography, graphic design, text, and print matter.

OCAD U Artist Wins Award at the 63rd Toronto Outdoor Art Fair

This year, the 63rd Toronto Outdoor Art Fair took place on July 12 - 14 at Nathan Phillips Square. As Canada’s leading contemporary outdoor and online art fair, TOAF gathered around 400+ artists from across Canada.

Congratulations to 2024 TOAF Career Launcher recipient Mark Krzepis winner of TOAF Best of Student Award.

Announcing Paige Bowen and Jessica Liu as the recipients of the Slate Asset Management 2024 Career Launcher

Paige’s work will be on display in the lobby of 2 St. Clair West starting August 2024 and Jessica's work will be installed later in 2025.

Announcing Gizem Candan as the recipient of the Ignite Gallery Call for Curators

Gizem Candan is a curator and visual artist who focuses on the state of anxiety experienced by humans and its effects on society in the Anthropocene—the contemporary era when human activity has significantly impacted the climate and nature. She is a research assistant at Cooper Cole Gallery.

Leilah Dhoré Announced as Parks Canada Visual Creative Content Specialist

Leilah Dhoré is a photographer, filmmaker, visual artist, and arts facilitator based in Toronto. She is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Art in Photography, with a minor in Art and Social Change at OCAD University. In her personal practice, she explores themes of identity, mental health, disability, healing, spirituality, and nature. She often uses collage and multiple exposure techniques to express her layered experiences.

401 Richmond Illustration Studio Career Launcher Artists Announced

OCAD University’s RBC Centre for Emerging Artists & Designers is excited to announce Anoosh Mubashar, Gabby Golec, Mark Krzepis, and Nik October-Clydesdale as the recipients of the 401 Richmond Illustration Studio Career Launcher.

Akin Studios Career Launcher Recipients Announced

Shannon Sandwell and Meera Dinh are the recipients of the 2024 Akin Studios Career Launcher. Both artists will receive a credit for Akin Studios over the course of the next year to continue to develop their practice.

Format Website Prize Recipients Announced

We're excited to announce Nina Iglesias (Art) and Jenn Stewart (Design) as the recipients of the 2024 Format Website Prize for Graduating Students Career Launcher!

Announcing Bracy Appeikumoh as the recipient for the C Magazine Editorial & Programs Assistant Career Launcher!

Bracy Appeikumoh is a writer and mixed media artist whose work centers reimagining desire and pleasure wholly divested from the diktats of empire and all of its baggage. Her erotic fiction takes place in queer futures embodying queer pre-colonial pasts; her non-fiction ponders how we get here. She is burdened by the urgent need to restore, preserve, and disseminate indigenous ways of being and knowing. Octavia E. Butler, bell hooks, Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, June Jordan, Lorraine Hansberry, Maya Angelou, Claudia Jones.

Announcing the recipients of the Contemporary Textile Co-op Residency Career Launcher

We're excited to announce Lea Ovčina and Susan Wood and as the recipients for the 2024 Contemporary Textile Co-op Career Launcher.

Announcing the recipients of the Toronto Animated Image Society Residency Career Launcher

We're excited to announce Liz Adler and Ash Woolf and as the recipients for the 2024 Toronto Animated Image Society Residency Career Launcher.

Announcing the recipients of the Gallery 44 Residency Career Launcher

We're excited to announce Ernesto Cabral de Luna as the recipient and Zain Bhanapatel as the runner-up for the 2024 Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography Residency Career Launcher.

Partial’s Continuous Support of Emerging OCAD U Talent

OCAD U’s partnership with Partial Gallery commenced in October 2018 as a destination for art collectors and patrons of the university to collect art by OCAD U students and alumni. Today, with over 100 artists and 1200 works of art on Partial’s OCAD U Showcase, this curated list features a range of fresh voices and innovative styles from both students and recent graduates.

Artist Project 2024 Career Launcher Recipients Announced

We're excited to announce Andria Keen and Ghislan Sutherland-Timm as the recipients of the Artist Project 2024 Career Launcher. Andria will be presenting an interactive installation and Ghislan will be exhibiting in one of the fair's booths for the 2024 fair. The 2024 Artist Project fair will take place from April 11-14, 2024.

Sequence Career Launcher Team Announced

We're excited to announce Aman Deshmukh, Kimathi Bwomono, Nathan Henry, Titiksha Rout, and Vincent Akinbode as the recipients of the SEQUENCE Call for Video Producer, Photographer and Graphic Designer Career Launcher!

These five designers and artists will join the Sequence team on their projects in 2024.

Announcing Sar Wagman asthe Recipient of the Interaccess Studio Assistant Career Launcher!

OCAD University’s RBC Centre for Emerging Artists & Designers and InterAccess are excited to announce Sar Wagman as the recipient of the InterAccess Studio Assistant Career Launcher. Sar is a Toronto-based artist and community arts worker who works in cross-disciplinary media and is driven by a passion for art, sustainability, and inclusion. Sar holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from OCAD University in Life Studies where Sar focused on nature, anatomy, technology, biology, ecology and sustainability.

2024 Black History Month Digital Exhibition at Yonge-Dundas Square

We're excited to announce Abby Adjekum, Dose Omoruna, Pixel Heller and Uzoma Ekpunobi as the recipients of the Black History Month Digital Exhibition Career Launcher!

Their work will premiere at Yonge-Dundas Square for February 2024.

Tribute as part of DesignTO Extended

'Tribute’ is a large-scale textile installation by Omar Tarek Zayed and Linjuan Dai that investigates Toronto’s lost river networks. This work seeks to re-contextualize the city’s landscape as we know it, by paying homage to the once vibrant freshwater network that flowed and carved through the city. ‘Tribute’ proposes an imagined landscape via abstract interventions that centre these historical rivers. The project on view at Stantec WIndow Gallery has been extended to March 18, 2024.

Announcing Krupa Patel as the Curator for the Clark Centre for the Arts Career Launcher

We're excited to announce Krupa Patel as the recipient of the Clark Centre for the Arts, Call for Curators/Cultural Producers.

Krupa's curatorial project will premiere at the Clark Centre for the Arts in June 2024 with artists Angelica Candido, Judith Grace Vijayasenan, Par Nair, and Prachi Dhase.

Announcing our 2024 Cboe Artists

We're excited to announce Brooklin Stormie, Emily Elise, Madeline Yee, Shinae Kim and Tiffany Chin as the recipients of the 2023 Cboe Commissioning Program Career Launcher! In winter 2023, the RBC Centre for Emerging Artists & Designers renewed our partnership Cboe Canada to bring on five new artists for the Cboe Commissioning Program.

Announcing Omar Tarek Zayed and Lin Juan Dai as the recipients of the DesignTO Exhibition at Stantec Window Gallery Career Launcher

November 17, 2023

Omar and Lin's project, Tribute, will be on display for the 2024 DesignTO Festival. Tribute is a large-scale textile installation that investigates Toronto’s lost river networks. Informed by data collected from the Lost Rivers Toronto organization and ArcGIS data, we are rethinking how cartography is made and represented, employing batik as a technical means of subverting the way in which land is understood and documented.

Three Artists on the Screens of Yonge-Dundas Square Reflect on the Theme of Storytelling

We're excited to announce Alexis Nanibush-Pamajewong, Kikki Guerard, and Quinn Hopkins as the recipients of the 2023 Yonge-Dundas Square Indigenous Student Centre Digital Exhibition Call for Artists. Their works will be displayed on the digital screens at Yonge & Dundas Square for the duration of November 2023.

Announcing Amir Nevis as the 2023 LIFT Designer in Residence

September 25, 2023

Amir Nevis is a graphic design student currently pursuing his bachelor's at OCAD University. He was on the path to become a programmer when he shifted to graphic design as his goals for contributing to art and culture were not getting fulfilled in CS. Intrigued by systems and language Amir is making strides to predicate his practice on the intersection of code, design and interactivity.

Announcing Lia Aiello as the Recipient of the Contemporary Textile Studio Co-op Residency Career Launcher

August 15, 2023

Lia Aiello is a Toronto based textile designer. Her practice focuses on weaving, natural dye and surface design. Playfully interpreting sociological concepts, she designs textiles with the same bizarre profoundness as the dreams you have in the morning between your first and second alarms.

Announcing RashvenaKhosa as the Recipient of the Slate Asset Management 2023 Career Launcher

August 9, 2023

We're excited to announce Rashvena Khosa and Young-Mi Won as the recipients of the Slate Asset Management 2023 Career Launcher. Rashvena’s works are now displayed in the lobby of 2 St. Clair West in the Yonge St. + St. Clair Avenue West community. Youngmi's work will be installed later in 2024.

Congratulations to Yuhan Zheng and Avalon Mott on a new Career Launcher venture with Critical Distance Centre for Curators

August 9, 2023

We're excited to announce Yuhan Zheng and Avalon Mott as the recipient of the 2023 Critical Distance Centre for Curators Public Art Billboard and Exhibition Essay Career Launcher! Yuhan Zheng's work "Round and Full" is now on view at 180 Shaw Street and a commissioned essay by Avalon Mott is available to read on criticaldistance.ca .

Announcing Yuxi Ji as the recipient of the 2023 Parks Canada, Visual Creative Content Specialist Career Launcher

August 2, 2023

Yuxi will split her time between the office and the park: processing images in the Rouge National Urban Park photo library, shooting imagery with drones and cameras, doing design tasks for the Park’s Communications department, organizing and archiving images and supporting the creation of staff resources.

OCAD U Artists Win Awards at the 62nd Toronto Outdoor Art Fair

July 25, 2023

This year, the 62nd Toronto Outdoor Art Fair took place on July 7 - 9 at Nathan Phillips Square. As Canada’s leading contemporary outdoor and online art fair, TOAF gathered around 400+ artists from across Canada. Amongst these artists, many OCAD U artists were not only featured but also recipients of awards.

Summerburst: A New Mural at the Foot of Yonge Street

June 22, 2023

Waterfront Toronto and the Waterfront Business Improvement Area commissioned a new temporary mural as part of a Career Launcher opportunity. The mural is called Summerburst, by Toronto-based artist Wandy Cheng, and will be on display through the fall.

Summerburst Mural Unveiled

July 25, 2023

As the recipient of the 2023 Waterfront Toronto Mural Career Launcher, Wandy created a piece titled “Summerburst” which is now on display at the foot of Yonge Street and can be found at Smorgasburg Toronto.

Announcing Mia Lemia as the Recipient of the Arts Etobicoke Career Launcher

June 19, 2023

"My name is Mehnaz Lamia (Mia) and I am an international student from Bangladesh. I am a recent graduate of the Creative Writing program at OCAD University and have an avid passion for poetry and storytelling...."

Announcing Damon Couto-Hill and Veerta Kumar as the Recipients of the Akin Career Launcher

June 19, 2023

Damon and Veerta will each be awarded $2,000 in credits to go towards a studio space at Akin’s shared workspaces in 2023-2024. In addition to the $2,000 studio credit, each artist will receive $450 credit for use at Remote Gallery at Richmond and Portland.

Announcing Betty Shao as the Recipient of the Secret Planet, Studio Assistant Career Launcher

June 19, 2023

Betty Shao is a Chinese-Canadian illustrator based in Toronto, Ontario. She mainly focuses on digital media but also enjoys screen printing and reading comics. Her work usually consists of narrative-driven food illustrations that have a feeling of nostalgia as she strives to become a comic artist.

Announcing Yuhan Zheng as the Recipient of the 2023 Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography Residency

June 19, 2023

Yuhan Zheng is a lens-based artist living in Toronto. Yuhan’s work is grounded in her daily experiences and her approach mainly involves performance and self-portrait. She is interested in investigating the ambiguity of the boundary between the virtual and the real. Through practice, she seeks to reveal the intricacies of navigating identities and finding a sense of belonging in a diverse, constantly changing world.

Announcing Tir Tabandeh as the Recipient of the 2023 Toronto Animated Image Society (TAIS) Residency Career Launcher

June 19, 2023

Tir Tabandeh is an Iranian storyboard artist and animation producer who creates magical stories inspired by Southwest Asian culture and folklore. Recently graduating from OCAD in Experimental Animation, their future goals are to create inclusive and exciting children's shows in studios like Titmouse.

Announcing River Kenji Fujimoto as the Recipient of the 2023 Open Studio Contemporary Printmaking Studio Residency Career Launcher

June 19, 2023

River Kenji Fujimoto is a Japanese-Sicilian, yonsei, emerging multidisciplinary artist and printmaker. Their work combs through the complexities of being mixed race, queer, trans, disabled and a descendant ofJapanese Canadian internment camp survivors. Their practice primarily uses relief printmaking techniques and text to explore their relationship as being part of a diaspora and their positionality as a settler for many generations.

Announcing Arshdeep Kang as the Recipient of the 2023 Art Metropole Programs, Publications and Shop Assistant Career Launcher

June 19, 2023

"Interested in syncretic design practices, I find ways to combine the design thinking I’ve learned from school with the visual language from my South Asian culture. As I have learned and practiced “less is more” in the minimalistic design scene, I also like exploring the “more with less”concept derived from my culture, getting the most output possible within imposed restrictions. "

Announcing the 2023 401 Richmond Illustration Studio Artists

June 5, 2023

We're excited to announce Ivy Chen, Daria Joyce, Hyunsun Park, and Gabrielle Schwartz as the recipients of the 401 Richmond Illustration Studio Career Launcher.