IN THE NEWS
Shannon Garden-Smith, Artist Prize 2025
We thought you might enjoy this November 2024 article, This stunning sand artwork isn’t complete until it’s been walked all over, featuring Garden-Smith’s work.
Shellie Zhang, Artist Finalist 2021
Congrats to Zhang, a member of the 2026 cohort of the Yale School of Art.
Isabel Okoro, Artist Prize 2024
Enjoy this January 2024 article in PhotoVogue in which Okoro discusses the intricate visual universe of her photography.
Trump Tariffs
While we have, in the past, only included links to events related to TFVA prize winners, the current political situation is having a serious impact on the Canadian art market. This article, with input by Simon Cole (founder of Cooper Cole Gallery) and Daniel Faria (founder of Daniel Faria Gallery), provides a good assessment of the situation and we thought it was important to include.
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS: In and around Toronto
Winnie Truong – Project Support 2021
The group exhibition, Echo Without Origin, which includes works by Truong, explores the idea of “floating signifiers”, a linguistic term used to describe words, symbols, images, and mark-making, as fundamentally untethered and therefore able to shift in their meaning. At Patel Brown, Toronto,
March 21 – May 3.
Derek Sullivan, Artist Prize 2007
Sullivan’s solo exhibition, Field Notes, at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, features the artist’s series of signature large-scale drawings responding to his year-long exploration of Shift, Richard Serra’s installation in King, Ontario—an important site of international modernism. The exhibition runs from February 8 – June 29.
STEPS Public Art, TFVA Project Support 2025
TFVA has announced a Project Support Award to STEPS Public Art for its support of three emerging equity-deserving mural artists—Andrea Rodriguez, Stephanie Babij, and Yasaman Mehrsa. They will create Yellow Oasis, a mural in Hillcrest Village on the west face of 840 St Clair Avenue west to be completed this spring. STEPS Public Art is a Canadian charity that runs programs that support artists and fosters vibrant and inclusive communities. The mural is inspired by the creek which flows underground through the area and will showcase the rich cultural history of the community.
For Travellers
Tau Lewis, Artist Prize 2019
The Polygon Gallery, in North Vancouver, presents Coloratura, a new outdoor installation by Brooklyn-based Canadian artist Tau Lewis. This monumental work marks the sixth installment in a 10-year commissioning partnership with Burrard Arts Foundation, supported by the Chan Family Foundation. Lewis constructs intricate sculptural portraits and quilts, using found, gathered, gifted, and recycled materials drawn from her personal environments. Utilizing a wide variety of sculptural techniques, including hand-sewing, direct carving, and assemblage, Lewis’s work honours the materials and modes of creative expression intrinsic to African diasporic histories. This installation is on view until March 30th. Lewis expands on Coloratura with a second site-specific sculpture, Fantasia, on the Polygon’s upper floor, linking the indoor and outdoor works. This is on display July 12 – September 29.
Edward Burtynsky, Founders Achievement Award 2008
Burtynsky is one of the participants in the group exhibition, Second Nature: Photography in the Age of the Anthropocene from now until August 3 at the Cantor Arts Centre, Stanford University, San Francisco. Burtynsky is featured prominently in the review of this Exhibition in The Guardian online on February 26, 2025.
Esmaa Mohamoud, Artist Prize 2019
Mohamoud has work included in a sporty new art exhibit at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio which explores America’s obsession with sports through the eyes of emerging artists. The exhibition runs through July 27, 2025.
Sandra Brewster, Artist Prize 2018
Brewster’s work is included in an exhibition titled Bold Women that runs through July 6 at the Spencer Museum of Art located at the University of Kansas. The exhibition explores the ways that women have pushed the boundaries of art and society across generations and geographies.
Nep Sidhu, Artist Prize 2017
Sidhu’s work is currently showing in Experience Warp and Weft: Technologies within Textile, at The Shepherd in Detroit until May 3rd. The show is curated by Allison Gleen, recently named curator to the 2026 Toronto Biennale.
RECENTLY CLOSED
Alexa Hatanaka, Artist Finalist 2023
Hatanaka’s print work, Shake the Ground. Au creux des sillons, was shown at the Foreman Gallery at Bishop’s University, in Sherbrooke, QC from January 17 – March 15, 2025
Esery Mondesir, Artist Prize 2025
Camille Turner, Artist Prize 2018
Mondesir was a panel member of a discussion entitled Our ancestors’ wildest dreams, and Turner was keynote speaker on March 14, 2025 at a multisensory program titled, A Journey through Otherworld, held at the Art Museum of the University of Toronto in conjunction with Turner’s solo exhibition which closed March 22, 2025.
Dana Prieto, Artist Prize 2022
Dana’s work was shown at the graduate thesis exhibition at OCAD from March 6-10
