Art Toronto 2022

At this year’s Art Toronto, we challenged ourselves to engage with new artists and new materials. We’re excited to share a few highlights of what we saw.

Artist: Esmaa Mohamoud
Gallery: Olga Korper Gallery, Toronto

African-Canadian artist Esmaa Mohamoud debuted her awe-inspiring shea butter bust of a young woman. The smooth, sumptuous surface of the work is a refreshing new take on what we expect to be white marble. The artist emphasizes the shea butter material by also using it to hand-wittle casts of Ghanian shea nuts, which are scattered at the base. The Italian black marble stand is a nod to the history of Italian marble busts. 

In the artist’s words, the Ebony in Ivory series “intends to explore the economic exploitation of young African girls who primarily make up the shea nut harvesting industry and emphasize what shea butter is primarily used for – Black hair and skin.”

Artist: Isabel Okoro
Gallery: Ninth Editions, Toronto (Online)

One of the most unexpected booths was a standout first in-person presentation by the online gallery Ninth Editions. They showed three photographs by Nigerian-born, Toronto-based artist Isabel Okoro. Each full edition sold out and two works were acquired by the AGO.

Okoro is interested in how photography and film can be pushed to tell stories. She visualizes an imagined world using interactions between the motherland and diaspora. Her work explores tensions between a harsh reality and utopia, finding itself in a beautiful sweet spot in the middle. 

Artist: Luca Soldovieri
Gallery: Olga Korper Gallery, Toronto

Luca Soldovieri, an early-career artist pursuing her BFA at OCAD, uses a meditative process of collecting dust in her Toronto studio to use as the material of her work. This process explores concepts of time, memory, and love, which are important to her practice. Intimate in size, this series shows light-filled views of windows in and around her studio that will feel familiar to anyone with a connection to Toronto. 

Artist: Jan Wade
Gallery: Mónica Reyes Gallery, Vancouver

Mónica Reyes Gallery showed matte black sculpture and vibrant textiles by established African-Canadian artist Jan Wade. These works were featured in the artist’s solo exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery earlier this year. We were struck by the musicality and rhythm of the textiles, which are inspired by traditions of Black Southern quilting and the repetition and improvisation of jazz. 

One of Wade’s sculptures was purchased by the AGO at Art Toronto. This fall, her monumental installation Epiphany (Indian Mask) was mentioned by Artnews, the Financial Times, and Artnet as a highlight of the Contemporary African Art Fair in London.