Photo credit; Toronto Today
Over 250 artists gathered at the Enercare Centre at Exhibition Place this weekend, showcasing their creations for Toronto’s Artist Project art fair.
Toronto Today reports that for art appreciators and buyers, the convention floor became a maze of visual stimuli – aisles of booths featuring paintings, sculptures and textiles lined up in rows, each manned by its respective artist. A competitive jury selected every single artist to be there, and their pride was evident.
Timed to coincide with Toronto’s role as a host city for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Artist Project included an exhibition titled “The Art of the Game.” It featured large-scale artworks that served as a metaphor for the sport-like competition of the art world: artists preparing, enduring and sometimes competing to succeed.
There was no tone of competition in the several conversations that Toronto Today had with the artists during a visit to the art fair on Sunday, however. Rather, artists were inspired by the same thing: their love of the city of Toronto.
Brian Harvey, an artist, said he enjoys using his work to invoke nostalgia and memories. “People say, ‘you’ve captured my childhood,’ ‘I grew up around there,’ ‘my first date was at Sneaky Dee’s,’ somebody was just saying that their book club met every week night at the Imperial pub,” he said.
In the next aisle, another booth featured landmarks of Toronto’s bygone eras, such as Honest Ed’s and the 888 Dupont St. artist lofts.
Digital illustrator Kit Li grew up in Toronto but moved away after she graduated from university in 2006 to pursue a career in the fashion industry. After moving back to Toronto eight years ago and falling back in love with the city, she decided to transition to visual art. “This is my way of reconnecting with the city, remembering my childhood and what [these buildings] made me feel,” she said.
She said she uses bright colours and illustrations to invoke the emotion associated with beloved Toronto landmarks. This is seen in hummingbirds embedded into an illustration of Massey Hall, where she said represent the “joyous music” in the building, or carousel patterns on the 888 Dupont St. building that rwepresents the “vibrant life” of the studios.
