Artists

Learn more about the artists participating in alder for the heart. Click through the photos to read their bios.

Supriya James

Supriya James is an I-BPOC, Toronto-based, contemporary landscape artist of Indo-Guyanese and Canadian heritages. She is represented by the Art Gallery of Hamilton and Partial Gallery.

After a successful career as a Communications Consultant working in public relations, government, politics, and the news media, she furthered her proclivity for expression by undertaking another undergraduate degree at OCAD University, Toronto, Ontario (BFA Hon with Distinction, Drawing & Painting, 2025).

A recipient of the 2025 OCAD U/Toronto Outdoor Art Fair Career Launcher’s Award, the 2025 OCAD U/Partial Gallery Career Launcher’s Award, and the 2025 Dean’sScholarship, James is presently pursuing an Interdisciplinary Master’s in Art, Media and Design (IAMD) MFA program at OCAD University. This all builds on her 1992 Honours degree from the University of Toronto (Drama; French Language and Literature; Dramatic Literature).

Supriya's artworks call for the critical need for environmental stewardship while manifesting thematic elements of identity, temporality, and ancestral history.

Sarah Waithe

Sarah Waithe is a multidisciplinary artist and arts facilitator based in Scarborough whose work spans painting, abstraction, and Afro-futurist digital art. Drawing from her Moroccan and Trinidadian roots, she explores identity, belonging, and cultural memory through vibrant color and layered symbolism. Her art reflects her experience as a second-generation Canadian and her Black and Muslim identity, weaving together stories of migration, bridging her cultural roots to her mother’s land, and exploring the meaning of home.

Beyond her studio practice, Sarah is passionate about community engagement and arts education. As a Senior Arts Facilitator, Waterfront Educator, and educator, she brings creativity into learning spaces to inspire self-expression and cultural exploration.

Alicia Tian

Alicia is an illustrator and MFA candidate at OCAD University, specializing in illustrative painting and ecological philosophy. Rooted in ancient Chinese mythology, her work encourages reflection on long-term ecological relationships while reimagining myth as a shared language that bridges cultures. Through painting and illustration, she aims to cultivate cross-cultural dialogue about belonging, stewardship, and the re-enchantment of the land we inhabit.

Cheree Kwon

Cheree Kwon is a Toronto-based visual artist from South Korea, where she earned her Master of Fine Arts. Her practice is rooted in personal memories and emotions, shaped by subtle shifts in her surroundings. Working primarily with acrylic and mixed media, she creates vibrant, layered compositions that interweave organic and geometric forms, textures, and a balanced palette. Inspired by both urban and natural landscapes, her work explores themes of identity, connection, and the harmony found in unity and diversity. She builds a visual language that reveals new facets with each layer, reflecting how distinct elements can coexist and support one another in a dynamic whole.

Sasha Yakovleva

Sasha Yakovleva is a Toronto-based emerging artist whose work explores identity, memory, and the multidimensionality of the diasporic experience. Working across painting, drawing, and mixed media, she combines acrylic and oil techniques with tactile materials such as beads, textiles, and found objects to create layered compositions that bridge personal and collective narratives. Her practice reflects on the formation of self, belonging, and inherited memory. Currently in her fourth year in Drawing & Painting at OCAD University, Sasha continues to expand her visual language through experimentation with materiality and storytelling. Her work has been exhibited in group shows across Toronto, including Face Off, Springboard, and The Way We Draw at the Ada Slaight Gallery, as well as Faces and Traces: A Cross-Border Portrait Project at Stackt North Hall Gallery. Sasha is also a current participant in From Our Point of View: Encounters with Artists, a year-long visiting artist research project led by Max Dean.

Sarah Van Dusen

Sarah Van Dusen is an artist from Toronto, Ontario. She graduated from Centennial College Fine Arts Studio Program and received the Faculty Scholarship Award. Sarah continued her education at OCADU earning a BFA in Drawing and Painting. She has designed and implemented multiple mural projects in the Scarborough area as part of Street Art Toronto’s initiative to deter graffiti tagging and beautify the City. She has also participated in numerous group exhibitions in the Toronto Core. Her most recent body of work focuses on self portraiture and identity.

Lolade Durodola

Lolade Durodola is a First Generation Nigerian-Canadian from the west of Toronto. She is a self-taught artist currently pursuing a Bachelor's Degree in Child and Youth Care at Humber College. Lola brings a wealth of experience as a facilitator, having worked with Generation Chosen, YMCA, the City of Toronto, and the Toronto District School Board (TDSB). She has also served as a program coordinator for a creative artist program called ArtistryHub.
As a multidisciplinary visual artist, Lola masterfully transmutes the fluidity of human experience into art. Her work focuses on themes such as self-expression, African philosophy, identity, love, and emotion. Through her art, Lola seeks to evoke the profound depth of conviction that often eludes verbal expression, fostering a deep sense of connection and understanding. She works across various mediums, including painting, sketching, pastels, and writing, with a primary focus on visual art, capturing raw emotion and advocating for oppressed groups.

Adora Lau

Adora Lau is a second-generation Chinese immigrant based in Whitchurch-Stouffville, Canada. A visual artist, her work is a meditative exploration of her personal relationship with loss and the limited connections with her homeland of Hong Kong. Her practice involves a labour-intensive painting process, using watercolour to explore the intersection of colonialism and suburban space. She is currently the Gallery Assistant at the Aurora Cultural Centre.

Zere Abylgazina

Zere Abylgazina (b. 2003) is a visual artist, curator, and arts facilitator, whose work is a vivid exploration of identity, culture, and personal narrative. She holds a Specialized Honours Bachelors of Arts in Visual Arts and Art History from York University.
Born in Kazakhstan and currently based in Toronto, Zere brings a unique cross-cultural perspective to her art and curatorial practice. Working across various media, Zere blends traditional techniques with modern approaches, crafting pieces that are both introspective and outwardly engaging.

Her art often centers on themes of belonging, memory, and cultural resilience, inviting viewers to experience the layered stories behind each work. Whether through portraiture or abstract visual metaphors, Zere’s pieces provoke reflection on how history, culture, and the self intersect.
Zere has exhibited at Eleanor Winters Art Gallery (Toronto, ON), Samuel J. Zacks Gallery (Toronto, ON), Special Projects Gallery (Toronto, ON), Gallery 1313 (Toronto, ON), *Integral by Kinesis* performance (Toronto, ON), and Central State Museum of Republic of Kazakhstan (Almaty, Kazakhstan).

Wendy Lu

Wendy Lu is a Hard of Hearing, Taiwan-born, Toronto-based multimedia artist whose practice spans painting, sculpture, photography, digital media, and mixed techniques. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) – Specialized Honours in Visual Arts from York University. At age three, Wendy lost her hearing due to meningitis-related fever and later underwent left-brain surgery and three cochlear implant procedures following a brain haemorrhage, resulting in severe-to-profound bilateral hearing loss.

Her artistic approach combines conceptual depth with refined craftsmanship, shaped by a perspective that bridges cultural, environmental, and technological contexts. Drawing from lived experience, she explores themes of resilience, adaptation, and inclusion, transforming personal challenges into creative strength.

Wendy’s work features precise linework, architectural structures, and layered spatial compositions, balancing form, meaning, and emotional resonance. Her subjects range from urban growth and ecological responsibility to the role of emerging technologies in shaping human environments. By integrating imagination, technical skill, and social awareness, Wendy creates thought-provoking artworks that engage viewers and inspire reflection on accessibility, innovation, and the evolving relationship between humanity and the world around us.

Stella Obedi

Stella Obedi is an emerging Tanzanian- Canadian mixed media artist based in Toronto, Canada.
She recently graduated from OCAD University with a Bachelor's of Fine Arts in the Drawing and Painting program in 2024.
Stella blends various mediums such as colored pencils, acrylic, ink, and collages from found and archival images. Stella has also recently begun to explore the use of African wax textiles within her works.
She finds inspiration for her work through nature, her family’s albums, stories and memories she recalls or hears. She also looks to other contemporary artists such as Kris Munsya, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Ibrahim Barmidele, and Patrick Quarm.

She has exhibited throughout numerous local and international galleries, including the Ada Slaight Gallery, Artscape Youngplace, the OCAD U student galleries, OCAD U GradEx, Art Mur Gallery, and in Germany. Additionally, Stella has been featured in a catalog by the Magenta foundation with the Flashforward program in 2020. In their exhibition titled "It's A Plastic World.

Keisha Dechaca

Keisha Dechaca is an emerging Filipino artist who aims to encourage a deeper connection with our true self and spirits through the visual arts. She has a background in Architecture and Design in the Philippines, as well as experiences in Arts both from her home country and in Canada. Her art experiences include mural paintings, commission works, and volunteering in art organizations such as Art City Toronto to assist the youth in their art endeavours. Etobicoke, especially the South Side, became her first home when she arrived in Canada as a student. Now, she is in pursuit of creating more artworks by interconnecting her architecture skills, art experiences, and her spiritual journey to explore new ways of incorporating mixed-medium and techniques in her art.

Aashna Pujara

Aashna Pujara is a South-Asian multidisciplinary artist from Hamilton, Ontario, currently working in Toronto. Their work consists of printmaking and textiles, and often a harmonious collaboration of the two mediums. Their current practice explores the concept of home. Through material research and working with elements from the earth, they aim to explore natural imagery through textures.

Aashna Pujara holds a BFA in Printmaking and Publications from OCAD University. Their work has been a part of group exhibitions at various galleries and artist spaces in and outside of the GTA.

Kimberlie Hood

Kimberlie Hood is a Haitian Canadian artist whose primary medium is acrylic on canvas. As an emerging artist, they are currently studying Visual and Digital Arts at Humber Polytechnic. Kimberlie’s work is predominantly representational, characterized by dramatic lighting and bold expressive use of colour. Through their paintings they explore the interplay between realism and emotions.

Ebru Winegard

Ebru Winegard, is a multidisciplinary artist, graphic designer, photographer, and filmmaker dedicated to celebrating diversity and unity. She held a solo exhibition as part of the Contact Photography Festival 2024 and has built an extensive portfolio through years of work in art and art education. Her creations have been featured in numerous group exhibitions and European art projects.

Jennifer Coghill

Jennifer Coghill, a T’Karonto/Toronto mixed-media fiber and textile artist, is a graphic design graduate of the Ontario College of Art (AOCA). She is drawn to the beauty of impermanence
and the quiet poetry of everyday materials. Her practice explores transformation and renewal, looking at how discarded or transient things can become sites of reflection and connection. Coghill has exhibited in three DesignTO Festivals, including an installation at Evergreen Brickworks. She is a Juried Artist Member of Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) and has participated in several juried art shows including Ontario Society of Artists 2023 Emerging Artists Exhibition, 2023 World of Threads Festival, SAQA Global Exhibition Fierce Planets, and the 2024 Grand National Fibre Art Exhibition, where she won a Juror's Choice Award. Her work has also been shown at Gladstone House and the Ontario Legislature Dining Room." """After Summer’s End"" and" "Entwined" " are part of a series of textile explorations of Toronto’s Leslie Street Spit, a landscape built from landfill, where rusted and broken remnants emerge through the overgrowth. In summer, the Spit bursts with wildflowers and lush greenery, but by late autumn the colours fade, revealing traces of its constructed origins.

Amir Patros

Cultivating conversations on Canadian intersectional experiences is essential in Amirs body of work. Throughout his adolescence and early adulthood, Amir began unraveling parts of himself that were othered due to external factors. Revitalizing his honest being through art was the start of recognizing the autonomy he inherently possesses. This objective is what prompted him to pursue an undergraduate degree as a double major in Psychology and Visual Arts at York University. During his time at York, Amir learned to utilize the trauma he experienced and reclaim it as a tool to create. By transposing wounds with the abstract shapes and colourful aesthetics that are commonly seen in his work, Amir aims to showcase the imagination of an unconventional, transmasculine, second-generation Iraqi.

Wasifa Noshin

Wasifa Noshin is a Toronto-based multidisciplinary artist who creates immersive worlds through vibrant colour, texture, and spatial composition. A graduate of York University’s Theatre Production and Design program, she blends her stagecraft expertise with an intuitive visual language that spans acrylics, oils, and watercolours. Her recent work blurs the line between realism and abstraction, inviting viewers to experience emotion and memory as fluid, layered forms. Drawing inspiration from her Bangla heritage and a keen curiosity about human nature, movement, and transformation, Wasifa’s work engages in sustainable and experimental practices, often reimagining materials and narratives as acts of renewal. Her art has been exhibited by Scarborough Arts, York University, Guild Festival Theatre, Toronto Public Library, plazaPOPS, Worth Gallery and the Neilson Park Creative Centre, illuminating themes of identity, migration, mental health, and humanity’s relationship with nature.

Sidney Ho

Sidney is a contemporary charcoal artist from Toronto whose portrait pieces blend realism and gestural abstraction. His work traces the fault lines of the human condition: beauty borne of blemish, pleasure poured through pain, and love languished in loss. Combined with a background in creative writing, Sidney weaves a mosaic of techniques into his practice, incorporating pastel, conté, oil paint, watercolour, and ink to create sweeping visual narratives. His work opens the door for viewers to reckon with a central question: When the mind has been sold for convenience, will you remember the soul?

Rhythm

My name is Rhythm, and I am primarily a digital artist (drawing, illustration and graphic design). I studied fine arts during my time at Monmouth College (Monmouth, Illinois). I am originally from Punjab, India. I used to make drawings as a kid in India. Followed through with that passion in college and got to try a lot of different mediums in USA. Being an immigrant, I had to move around a lot. The constant moving made it difficult to keep art supplies on me. I decided to get an Ipad for my creative outlets. The pandemic ultimately led me to Canada in 2021. This is also where I got to hone my skills and solidify myself as a digital artist.

I am also a queer person. My queerness has played an important role in my artistic journey. Toronto is where I finally had the chance to reflect and accept that I am bisexual and non-binary. This has inevitably clashed with my identity as a Punjabi person. Punjab is not the most queer-friendly place in the world and I have had to deal with that head-on. My art has been the main coping mechanism for me as I navigate through the clashing parts of my identity.

Ann Marie Reszetnik

Ann Marie Reszetnik was born and raised in Etobicoke exploring the banks of the Humber River. She is a self-taught sculptor who sources her materials from the shores of Georgian Bay and Lake Ontario. Poised between abstraction and representation, her tree roots, driftwood and rocks contemplate the tensions between the industrial and the organic. She is also a writer and published poet; and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts Studies from York University, Toronto and a Master of Arts in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of Gloucestershire, U.K. She lives in the Humber Bayshore area and is continually inspired by nature and water.

Christina Chung

Christina Chung (b. 1995) is an Etobicoke-based emerging artist working primarily in digital media, acrylic paint, and gouache. She holds a BSc in Computer Science from the University of Toronto (2020) and previously worked as a software engineer before deciding to pursue formal training in art. Currently, she studies Visual and Digital Arts at Humber Polytechnic. Her passion includes figurative and animal illustration as well as hard-edge abstract painting. Christina draws inspiration from contemporary artists like Sam Yang and Julia Peng, as well as her mother, Ling Mei Chung, a still life and landscape painter.

Katyayini

Katyayini is a multidisciplinary artist whose work is deeply rooted in the transformative power of self-expression. Through the interplay of paints and poetry, she creates emotionally charged narratives that explore memory, identity, and healing. Her journey as an artist has been shaped by resilience, cultural introspection, and a commitment to making art that speaks to the quiet strength found in vulnerability.
Though her early career was grounded in business transformation and engineering, art remained a constant undercurrent throughout her life. A significant health setback became a turning point—a moment that led her back to the canvas. In painting, she rediscovered a form of storytelling more profound than words. What began as a personal process of reflection and recovery evolved into a vibrant artistic practice that channels her inner journey into vivid visual language.

Katyayini’s work draws heavily from her Indian heritage, weaving traditional motifs and natural elements into contemporary forms. Her preferred mediums—oil and acrylic—allow her to explore rich textures and nuanced palettes that mirror the emotional and cultural depth of her subjects. Whether abstract or figurative, her compositions are intimate portrayals of pain, resilience, and the quiet beauty that can emerge from life's most difficult moments.
Her artistic vision is shaped by the belief that art can be both a mirror and a refuge. Each brushstroke becomes a ritual of healing, each layer of paint a step toward renewal. Her works invite viewers to pause and reflect—not only on the stories they see but on the echoes of their own lived experiences.