2025 Space Award recipients Melika Saeeda, Leila-Refahi and Azadeh Pirazimian!
Image of Space Award Recipients, Akin, Toronto Arts Foundation and Neighbourhood Arts Network logos.
We’re excited to announce the 2025 Space Award recipients: Melika Saeeda, Leila-Refahi and Azadeh Pirazimian!
The Space Award focuses on providing creation, performance, and/or exhibition spaces to newcomer professional artists who are past recipients of the Newcomer Arts Award. This award not only provides funding and space essential for professional artists to grow their practice, but also supports artists in growing their professional network.
The Space Award focuses on providing creation, performance, and/or exhibition spaces to newcomer professional artists who are past recipients of the Newcomer Arts Award. This award not only provides funding and space essential for professional artists to grow their practice, but also supports artists in growing their professional network.
Recipients receive:
$500 cash to support their arts practice
$2,000 in Akin credit to be used for studio or exhibition space
The Space Award is made possible with the support of RBC.
Melika Saeeda was born and raised in Tehran, Iran, and graduated with an MFA in Graphic Design from Tehran Art University. Over the past 10 years, she has illustrated more than 30 children’s books in Turkey and Iran. Many of Melika’s illustrations have also appeared in Iranian children’s magazines and books, and her artwork has been exhibited at book fairs in Iran, Canada, South Korea, United Arab Emirates, and Turkey. Her art is about telling stories that draw on her experiences as an Iranian artist. She is inspired by traditional Iranian methods of depiction, such as the narratives in Persian miniatures – tiny, ornate paintings that tell traditional stories.
This visual tradition has inspired her own art practice and representational choices, which she explores through drawing, painting, lithography, and murals. “I am excited to join community arts initiatives here in Canada, now that I feel free to express myself in ways I could not before,” Melika notes, adding she wants to draw on those traditional depiction methods and their narrative potential “to tell new stories that depict the full range of human diversity and that reflect on social justice while celebrating the freedom. Rather than simply commenting on life in Iran, however, I want to explore how these stories can be retold, made contemporary, and shared in a new culture.
@melikasaeeda
Leila-Refahi works with painting, installation, and digital media to create participatory art experiences. Her work mainly focuses on environmental issues, climate change and endangered animals. Leila received her Master’s degree in Art Education from Concordia University in 2021 and has a Master’s and Bachelor’s degree in Painting from the Art and Architecture University in Tehran, Iran.
In her research and educational projects, she inquires about socially engaged art and its impact on raising and transforming environmental knowledge in communities. Leila has presented six solo exhibitions and participated in more than 60 national and international group exhibitions and festivals. She also ran participatory projects, in which she engaged audiences in the artwork process by asking them to create and precede the artwork, cooperating, and finally becoming artists of the work. The interactions between participants, the artist, and the artwork are the most significant part of her practice.
@leilarefahi.art
Azadeh Pirazimian is a multidisciplinary artist, art educator based in Toronto and former lecturer in Iran. With a passion for exploring themes of self-expression, communication, daily resistance, through diverse media, including drawing, painting, photography, performance, and sculpture. Her methodology has been consistent throughout her career, resulting in her own distinctive visual language.
Over the years, Azadeh has showcased her works at multiple exhibitions in Iran, Canada, and the Netherlands. Her art in Canada has received recognition through the Newcomer Artists Mentorship Grant and RBC Space Awards.
Azadeh holds a bachelor's degree in painting and a master's in visual communication. In the fall of 2023, Azadeh will pursue her MFA at University of Waterloo, where she can develop her artistic skills further.
For more information about this award please visit: https://torontoartsfoundation.org/awards/newcomer-space-award
If you're interested in partnering with Akin on a Career Launcher at your institution organization, please reach out to us at info@akincollective.com.