Akin Members participating at TOAF in 2026
The Toronto Outdoor Art Fair (TOAF) returns July 10–12, transforming Nathan Phillips Square into a vibrant showcase of creativity featuring more than 400 artists from across the country. Be sure to explore works by talented artists from the Akin community, including current members and alumni.
This year, we are also excited to announce the inaugural TOAF x Akin Space Award!
The TOAF x Akin Space Award is designed, in collaboration with the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair (TOAF), to support emerging artists in Toronto by providing access to creative workspace and/or exhibition space.
The recipient will receive a $1,000 credit applicable toward:
an Akin studio membership (shared or dedicated) at any Akin location
a Remote Gallery rental
or a combination of both
For more information about TOAF awards, visit the TOAF Awards Program.
Participating Akin Members:
Madeleine Baird - Booth 158
Akin Richmond-Bathurst member, Madeleine (Maddy) Baird (b. 2002) is an emerging artist from Pembroke, ON, currently based in Toronto. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Art Honours at Queen’s University, graduating in 2024. Her practice consists of oil painting and serigraphy, with a focus on portraiture. Her work has been exhibited in Kingston, Toronto and Vienna. Madeleine was a recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant in 2024.
Using directional brushstrokes and incorporating vivid colours into the skin, she creates a sense of vibrancy and life in the subjects she paints. Her practice is fueled by an interest in exploring themes of self-reflection, vulnerability, connection, and queer life experiences. Integrating narrative-based elements into her work allows her to engage with viewers by creating a sense of curiosity and exploration. By centering these concepts, she aspires to connect with viewers and hopes that those who are represented in her artwork can feel uplifted by this representation.
To view more of their work available at TOAF click here
Kelcy Timmons Chan - Booth 411
Akin Richmond-Bathurst member, Kelcy Timmons Chan (they/them) is a Cantonese Canadian American queer pop artist and mural painter based in Toronto. Through their lens as a biracial gender-fluid immigrant, Kelcy explores what it feels like to find belonging and have cultural pride. They examine how food is a universal love language. They amplify stories of family-owned restaurants and queer spaces highlighting how our places of belonging directly tie us to our history, the land we live on, and our communities.
With the artist’s signature motif, the little purple people, Kelcy whimsically exemplifies the presence of the LGBTQIA+ community everywhere, and in many of their pieces spotlights the intersection of their Asian heritage and queer identity.
By using little purple people, Kelcy creates intricate, bustling scenes representative of immigrant and queer spaces. They invite the viewer to consider how their experiences with their community and with food have contributed to what home and belonging feel like.
To view more of their work available at TOAF click here
Olivier Forgues - Booth 162
Akin Richmond-Bathurst member Olivier Forgues is a Canadian painter. Originally from Montreal, he is now based in Toronto.
To view more of their work available at TOAF click here
Anna Tanner - Booth 7
Akin Richmond-Bathurst member Anna Stephen Tanner is an American-born oil painter and curator from Atlanta, GA, practicing in Toronto, ON. Drawn to themes of tension, her practice traces her upbringing amongst rigid southern American values to her experience as a femme lesbian. She depicts the commodification of the female form, reclaiming agency through her gaze. Her references come from vintage magazines, imagery from old Hollywood, early 2000s media, and imagery from rural America.
With her BFA in Criticism and Curatorial Practices from OCADU, her recent curatorial work includes "Power Play - A Girl Behind A Gun" at Girl Fraud Gallery, and her BFA thesis "GRIT", held at Remote Gallery. Her painting work has been shown internationally at (SCENE) Metrospace in Michigan, US, and in Toronto at Stackt Market, Ada Slaight Gallery, Remote Gallery, and OCADU at Gradex111.
To view more of their work available at TOAF click here
Eli Moser - Booth 81
Akin Dupont member Eli Moser is a painter, ceramicist and neuroscientist. His work is fun, unsettling, and guaranteed to be a conversation starter. During his thesis he learned that there are some questions clinical research and psychology can't help you with. He is now trying his best answer them through figurative surrealism. Above all he takes being silly very seriously. He works in acrylic, graphite, ink, and watercolour on canvas, board, and anything else he can get his hands on.
To view more of their work available at TOAF click here
Shayla Bond - Booth 153
Akin Dupont member Shayla Bond is a Canadian fibre artist whose work explores the intersection of textile, design, and domestic space. Rooted in the preservation of heritage craft techniques, her practice reconsiders quilting as both an artistic medium and a functional object within contemporary interiors. Through colour, texture, scale, and precise construction, Bond creates works that engage with the architecture of the home and the sensory experience of living with handmade objects, emphasizing a synergy between functionality and aesthetics.
To view more of their work available at TOAF click here
MP Guillot - Booth 222
Akin Dupont member MP Guillot is a multidisciplinary artist from Québec, currently living and working in Toronto. Ceramics has become her playground to be in relationship with her creative intuition. She loves to dream up otherworldly forms, bake colour, and explore the secret language of objects. MP’s work lives in the space between knowing and letting go, where intuition meets experimentation. With a background that weaves through design, fashion, and photography, she brings a sense of childlike playfulness to everything she makes.
MP’s work is born from a dance between control and letting go, with a deep desire to let out what wants to move through her. She uses a blend of coiling and slab building techniques to create abstract sculptural works. MP approaches the surface like a painter to achieve a fluid and irreverent style. In contrast, since developing new glaze colours is a science that requires calculated experimentation, each glaze is built from raw materials in her studio, tested and earned.
MP is also a 2026 Jurors’ Pick!
To view more of their work available at TOAF click here
Joy Zheng - Booth 37
Akin Davisville member Joy Zheng is a Toronto-based artist, creating vibrant, eclectic oil and acrylic paintings. She graduated from Western University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, where she began developing her style and thematic focus. Her inspiration often draws from the way perceptions of the world shift at various stages of life, exploring themes of introspection, and self-dialogue rooted in personal experience. Many of her works intentionally incorporate a childlike element, using vivid colour palettes, and deliberately chaotic, disproportionate compositions. Through this seemingly playful lens, Joy examines social constructs and the complexity of human emotions.
Woven into recent works are themes of religion, technology, generational patterns, and self identity with each piece acting as a scattered visual documentation of fragmented feelings. Joy’s work aspires to offer viewers a moment of contemplation and reflection, amidst their busy lives, as a form of reconnecting with each individual’s inner purpose.
To view more of their work available at TOAF click here
Vitaly Medvedovsky - Booth 61
Akin Davisville member Vitaly Medvedovsky was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and moved to Canada in 1998. He completed the MFA Painting program at Concordia University (Montreal) in 2009, after receiving a BFA from the Ontario College of Art and Design (Toronto) in 2004. Vitaly’s work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Stuttgart and Berlin. He has received numerous awards, including the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant, the Plaskett Award, the Ontario Arts Council Emerging Artist Grant, as well as the Canada Council project grant.
My paintings and drawings depict imaginary spaces that intertwine autobiographical elements with references to history, science fiction and mythology, as a way of exploring the themes of memory, fantasy and the passage of time. I am particularly interested in the way one's current state can distort our perception of the past, and influence our visions of the future. My ultimate goal is to create works that exist in a space outside of time - an imagined world that lies somewhere between a past that never actually happened and a future that never quite panned out as hoped. Instead of constructing a closed-off narrative with a particular message, I'm trying to create moments of uncertainty, whereby the different elements in the drawing or painting, while existing within the same space, don't necessarily always fit logically together, be it in terms of scale, chronology, or even basic physics. These gaps in meaning create a kind of opening that allows the viewer to access the work and interpret it on their own terms.
To view more of their work available at TOAF click here
Larissa Mattwich - Exclusively Online
Larissa a member at Akin Queen East. Since childhood, she has longed for a sister. Her series Sisterhood explores the deep connections between women that extend beyond blood ties. With age, she has come to recognize the strength and support these friendships provide. Shared experiences—gardening, working together, laughter, joy, and standing by one another through loss and challenge—create bonds and intimacy distinct from romantic relationships, often offering support that helps navigate life with partners.
She works primarily with acrylics on mylar. Fluid acrylics animate the playful quality of her paintings. Loose brushstrokes, lines, and drips take on a life of their own and contribute to the unfolding narrative.
To view more of their work available at TOAF click here
