Lan "Florence" Yee is a visual artist and cultural worker based in Tkaronto (Toronto) & Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang (Montreal). They engage in an interdisciplinary practice that incorporates writing and unassuming imagery, using various mediums such as textile embroidery, sculptural installation, electronic signage, painting, and photography. Yee's work explores speculative connections between the historical and personal, often through a lens of queer diasporic memory.

Jem Woolidge is a transmasculine white-settler artist and facilitator based in Tiohtià:ke (Montreal), specializing in participatory textile art, illustrative storytelling, and fashion design. Drawing inspiration from their background in working with children in music and art contexts, Woolidge infuses his studio practice with interactive elements such as games, humor, and dress-up, inviting viewers to actively engage with their work.

Whatisadam, a Canadian artist, infuses his work with iconic Canadian imagery reminiscent of vintage comics and pop art. His pieces often feature depictions of North American wildlife and landscapes, but with a unique twist that incorporates elements of urban culture. From maple syrup cans to tattooed ducks and hockey hoodlums, Whatisadam's art captures the essence of Canadian identity in a playful and dynamic way. Throughout his career, he has collaborated with various organizations, including Osheaga, Sprite, Hennessy, Roots Canada, and many others, showcasing his versatility and widespread appeal.

​Janet Werner is a Canadian artist, born in Winnipeg, who works and lives in Montreal creating unique female portraits. Werner uses found fashion photographs that she cuts, mixes, and reassembles as source material for her paintings. Her work addresses themes of gender, beauty, transformation, loss and psychological vulnerability. Werner has had countless exhibitions across Canada, including a solo exhibition at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal.

A graduate from the BFA program of the Ontario College of Art and Design, Canadian artist Winnie Truong, based in Toronto, uses colored pencils and chalk pastels to create large-scale drawings that challenge ideals of beauty through an overarching focus on the female form and its relationship to nature. Her pencil markings most often depict masses of hair that sprout from unexpected places combining portraiture, fauna and flora in order to subvert the idealized female form. Truong’s work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Canada, the United-States, Asia and Europe. She is also represented in private and public collections including the Canada Council Art Bank, the Doris McCarthy Gallery at the University of Toronto, The Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas, and the Bank of Denmark among others.

Richard-Max Tremblay, a graduate of Goldsmiths' College in London, England, is a multidisciplinary artist whose career encompasses painting, photography and video. Tremblay's artistic focus centers on the fragility of memory and archives. Over the past four decades, his artistic trajectory has evolved around themes of the "hidden," absence, loss, and the forgotten. Tremblay's work delves into representations of the unseen, truth and untruth, and the barriers to perception.

Jutai Toonoo (1959–2015) was an Inuk artist known for his contemporary drawings and prints. He was born near Kinngait (formerly Cape Dorset), Nunavut, Canada, into a family with a rich artistic tradition. Toonoo's artwork often delved into personal and social issues, and he was recognized for his unique and bold style. His pieces frequently addressed themes such as addiction, mental health, and the challenges faced by Indigenous communities. Toonoo's work stood out for its emotional intensity and its willingness to tackle difficult subjects.

Rojin Shafiei is an Iranian artist living and working in Montreal. In her videos, art is a vehicle for the translation of cultural messages and is used to present diverse feminine subjectivities. She presents these themes both through a literal documentary style and as symbols. She is particularly inspired by the observation of routines, both individual and urban. Rojin received her bachelor of fine arts in Intermedia from Concordia University in 2017 and has screened her work internationally in various festivals.

Napachie Pootoogook (ᓇᐸᓯ) (1938–2002) was an Inuk artist from Kinngait (formerly Cape Dorset), Nunavut, Canada. Napachie, being part of the Pootoogook family of artists, played a pivotal role in popularizing Inuit art, much like her relatives. Renowned for her prints and drawings, Pootoogook's artwork often depicted scenes from Inuit life, nature, and mythology. Her work is characterized by a distinct style that combines intricacy with a deep understanding of her cultural heritage. Napachie Pootoogook's artworks were featured in numerous exhibitions and collections, contributing to the broader recognition of Inuit art. The Kinngait (Cape Dorset) printmaking tradition, including Pootoogook's work, gained international acclaim for its distinct style and portrayal of Inuit culture.

Annie Pootoogook (ᐊᓂ ᐳᑐᒍ) (1969–2016) was a contemporary Inuk artist known for her drawings depicting the daily life of Inuit communities. Born into an artistic family in Kinngait (formerly Cape Dorset), Nunavut, Canada, her work often focused on the experiences of Inuit women, family dynamics, life in the Arctic and the challenges faced by her community. Pootoogook's art gained international recognition for addressing pressing issues such as cultural preservation, environmental degradation, and the impact of colonialism on Indigenous communities. 

Kent Monkman is an interdisciplinary Cree visual artist who uses painting, photography, video and performance art to explore themes of colonization, sexuality, loss and resilience  in the context of indigenous experience. Monkman’s own alter-ego Miss Chief Eagle Testickle consistently appears in his art as a gender-fluid being to combat the colonial gaze. Monkman’s work has been featured in exhibitions in Canada, the United-States and Europe, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, The National Gallery of Canada, Palais de Tokyo in Paris, among many more.

Shantel Miller is a Jamaican-Canadian visual artist (born in Toronto, ON) who lives and works in Boston, MA. She received an MFA in Painting at Boston University and a BFA in Drawing and Painting from the Ontario College of Art and Design. Miller’s figurative paintings represent lived and imagined experiences that often situate the body in moments of vulnerability and introspection. As part of her creative process, she uses body language symbolically to suggest relationships of tension and intimacy. Working in this way, Miller negotiates notions of a public and private self, and explores ideas relevant to spirituality and existentialism in ordinary depictions of Black life (source).

Ken Lum, a Vancouver-based artist of Asian descent, best known for his photographic work, creates artworks for public spaces. His work focuses on the construction of our identity in society. Guided by an interest in ethnography, Ken Lum creates works that are politically charged and that frequently address the experience of culture clash. Seeking to engage the viewer in dialogue, Lum's installations often immerse his audience in a foreign locale, miming the experience of an immigrant or of an earlier time (source).

Micah Lexier, born in Winnipeg and based in Toronto, is a versatile artist whose work spans sculpture, installation, photography, and text-based pieces. He earned his MFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 1984. Renowned for his curious and clever creations, Lexier is also an avid collector of objects. His artistic exploration revolves around temporal and graphic systems of organization and measurement. Lexier has showcased his work in numerous international and national solo and group exhibitions and has undertaken several public commissions, including a recent one in Calgary at Brookfield Place. His pieces are featured in prestigious museum collections worldwide, including The British Museum in London, the Contemporary Art Gallery in Sydney, Australia, The National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, and The Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. Lexier is represented by Birch Contemporary in Toronto.

Serge Lemoyne (1941–1998) was a Canadian artist, best known for his contributions to the Quebec contemporary art scene. His early work was associated with the Automatistes, a group of artists who were part of the Quebec modern art movement of the same name. This movement was characterized by a commitment to abstract expressionism and the exploration of automatism in art creation. Lemoyne's art often carried social and political undertones, addressing environmental concerns and the human relationship with nature.

Suzy Lake (born in 1947) is an American-Canadian artist and activist. She contributed to the civil rights movement of the 1960s and began her art journey in 1968 when she moved to Montreal from the United States. Suzy was one of the first women artists in Canada to use performance art, photography and film to talk about things like who we are in society, what it means to be a girl or boy, and how our bodies are seen.

Canadian portrait painter Kris Knight, was born in Windsor, Ontario. In his work, Knight focuses on character-based portraits of men in which he blurs the line between dream and reality, public and private self. Ambiguity is an integral element of his work. He has participated in artist residencies, solo and group exhibitions across North America and Europe, and his work can be found in collections in Canada, the United-States and Europe.

Jay Krakower is an artist, model, and body positive trailblazer. Her work is a profound exploration of various aspects of her existence, delving into the intricacies of her physical form, the traumas she has endured, and the complexities of sex, gender, and relationships. Through the use of imagery depicting her body and the spaces she occupies, Krakower critically examines and analyzes her life, often engaging the viewer with a confrontational gaze that encourages a connection and exchange of understanding with the subject. Krakower's artistic practice is interdisciplinary, spanning painting, drawing, and soft sculpture. This approach allows her the necessary time to immerse herself in the exploration of her experiences with her body and existence. A central theme in her work revolves around the concept of home, investigating what it means to feel a sense of belonging in a space, within her own body, and in her mind. Utilizing color, forms, and space, Krakower confronts and unveils perpetual loneliness, ultimately leading to a sense of relief in her artistic expression.

Micah Goldstein is an American & Canadian artist living and working in Montreal. She is a wearer of many hats, including cartoonist, designer, illustrator, and animator. Her work centers around storytelling and themes of identity, often auto-biographical. As a self-proclaimed butch, Micah often toys with the idea of gender expectations... and ways to subvert them.

Rosalie Favell (b. 1958) is a Métis (Cree/English) photo-based artist from Winnipeg. She often draws from popular culture, family photo albums, and art history to explore what it means to be an aboriginal woman in today’s society. She uses photography and collage techniques to engage with the complexities of her own identity. Favell has exhibited her work internationally, in Canada, the US, Edinburgh, Scotland, Paris, France, Taipei, Taiwan and Melbourne, Australia. Self-representation through photography is important for Favell as an Indigenous woman, in part because of the painful history associated with the medium. Historically, colonizers have weaponized photography against Indigenous peoples. In Canadian residential schools, staff took photos of Indigenous children to provide proof of order and discipline to government officials, with the goal of forcibly erasing all evidence of these children’s cultural backgrounds. Favell subverts this power imbalance traditionally associated with photography, by turning the camera on herself and using it for her own self-representation.

Kingmeata Etidlooie (ᑭᒥᐊᑕ) (1915–1989) was an Inuk graphic artist and sculptor from Kimmirut (formerly known as Lake Harbour), Nunavut, Canada, known for her significant contributions to Inuit art, particularly through her drawings and prints. Her art often depicted scenes from traditional Inuit life, capturing aspects of daily activities, hunting, and wildlife. Etidlooie's work is characterized by a bold use of line and a focus on the intricate details of the subjects she portrayed. She contributed to numerous annual print collections, and her art has been featured in exhibitions across Canada and internationally.

Kim Dorland is a Canadian artist, born and raised in Alberta, who now lives and works in Vancouver, British-Columbia. His artistic process consists of creating thick layers using oil, acrylic, and spray paint to generate painterly works that are reflective of his own life experiences, inspired by nature, domestic interiors and portraits of his family. Dorland earned his BFA at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and his MFA from York University. His work can be found in numerous public and corporate collections including the Art Gallery of Alberta, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Musée d’art contemporain of Montreal, the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, the Sander Collection in Berlin, and many private collections.

Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan, Canadian performance artists collaborating since 1989, have exhibited their live work and videos worldwide, from Sri Lanka to New York City. Renowned for their smart and funny feminist performances, films, videos, artist’s books, and public art projects, they infuse their work with humor, satire, and a queer feminist perspective. Their iconic pieces like We're Talking Vulva, A Day in the Life of a Bull-Dyke, and Lesbian National Parks and Services confront significant social issues impacting 2SLGBTQI+ communities, captivating audiences across Canada, Japan, Europe, Australia, and the U.S.

Kezna Dalz is a multidisciplinary artist based in Montreal. She is known for her bright, colourful, and empowering images of Black women. She aims to uplift the Black community and fight against racial discrimination with both her paintings and digital drawings. Other themes that she engages with in her art include self-care, vulnerability, feminism, and body positivity.

Influenced by and often directly referencing fashion imagery, Nicole Crozier's work delves into the surreal exploration of the dynamic potential of accessories and decoration in relation to the female body. Ornamentation takes on a subtly insidious role, frequently overshadowing the figure and obscuring its humanity. The artistic practice strives to cultivate an aesthetic that is both alluring and disconcerting, concurrently investigating the intersections of desire, fantasy, identity, and self-image.

After getting her master's degree with honors in photography from the University of the Arts London, Québécois photographer Arianne Clément travelled far and wide to find inspiration, often getting involved in humanitarian projects with the marginalized, her preferred subjects. Renowned for her dedication to spotlighting the stories of the elderly, Clément's acclaimed project How to Live to 100 took her to renowned "blue zones", known for their high life expectancy and senior population. There, she explored the secrets of longevity and aging perspectives. Her celebrated portraits of seniors have earned her numerous prizes and grants, sparking global conversations and shedding light on the wisdom and experiences of the elderly.

Geneviève Cadieux is a Canadian artist known for her large-scale photographic and media works in urban settings. She lives and works in Montreal. Cadieux's work confronts identity, gender, and the body. She presents the body as a landscape, focusing on small details such as mouths, bruises, and scars in extreme close-ups. Cadieux is also interested in the way that art integrates into the urban environment. Many of her works are installed in public spaces (source).

Working collaboratively for over 40 years, Pierre Commoy and Gilles Blanchard are French artists and life partners who live and work in Paris. Their art combines painting (done by Gilles) and photography (done by Pierre) to create portraits that mix reality and fantasy with a nod to history and pop-culture. Their work has been in exhibitions in Europe and the United-States. Over the course of their career, the pair has taken portraits of celebrities, including Marilyn Manson, Naomi Campbell and Madonna, to name but a few.

Sandra Brewster is a contemporary Canadian artist known for her work in visual arts, particularly in drawing, painting, and installation. Born in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, Brewster explores themes related to identity, memory, and the human experience, often focusing on the Black diasporic experience. Her artistic practice often involves creating portraits and figures that explore the nuances of identity, belonging, and representation. Utilizing specific landscapes as metaphors and manipulating old photographs, Brewster centers people within them. Born to Guyanese parents, her work explores the migration of Caribbean people, forming a complex identity across geographies and temporalities within the diaspora.

Shary Boyle is a contemporary Canadian visual artist who works across media and genres, including sculpture, drawing, painting and performance, and is known for her representational and narrative symbolism that is personal and at times disturbing. She lives and works in Toronto. She studied art and music theatre, then went on to post-secondary studies at the Ontario College of Art, graduating in 1994. Her work explores themes of gender, identity, sexuality, power and class, evoking emotional and psychic resonance through craftsmanship. She is particularly known for her explorations of the figure through porcelain sculpture.

Sylvie Bouchard, a Montreal-based visual arts graduate from the University of Ottawa, has been an active painter since the early 1980s. Her artwork delves into a dreamlike realm filled with symbolic elements, characters, objects, animals and scenarios. Drawing inspiration from western theatrical traditions and art movements such as symbolism, surrealism, and new image painting, Bouchard's style is a captivating fusion of influences. Her paintings depict a landscape that goes beyond imagination, evoking a sense of familiarity yet remaining elusive. Her work resists easy interpretation, maintaining an arbitrary and beautiful quality that defies explanations from psychology or iconology.

​Dempsey Bob is a First Nations artist of Tahltan and Tlingit descent. Bob is a master carver, and his artworks often reflect the rich cultural traditions of the Tahltan and Tlingit peoples. He is known for his skill in both wood and bronze sculpting. His creations include totem poles, masks, and other ceremonial and functional objects, showcasing intricate details and traditional motifs. In addition to his contributions as an artist, Bob is recognized for his dedication to passing on his knowledge and skills to the younger generations. He has been involved in teaching and mentoring aspiring Indigenous artists, contributing to the preservation and continuation of Northwest Coast Indigenous art traditions.

Beige Blum is a freelance artist with a passion for illustration, comics, zines and character design. She creates works both digitally and traditionally, with a love for print media. She currently attends OCAD University for Illustration and is based in Toronto, Canada. Beige is also the founder of Dirty Laundry Collective, a collection of Toronto artists/designers, all of whom are women of colour and/or part of the LGBTQ+ community, that often work collaboratively on personal projects such as zines and anthologies. In her spare time, Beige can be found gaming or lusting after high-waisted pants! (source)

Christi Belcourt (apihtâwikosisâniskwêw / mânitow sâkahikanihk) is a Métis visual artist, environmentalist, designer, community organizer and social justice advocate. She is best known for her vibrant and intricate artwork, which often draws inspiration from the natural world and traditional Métis floral beadwork. Her paintings address themes such as environmental sustainability, Indigenous rights, and the revitalization of Indigenous languages and cultures.

Christi Belcourt (apihtâwikosisâniskwêw / mânitow sâkahikanihk) is a Métis visual artist, environmentalist, designer, community organizer and social justice advocate. She is best known for her vibrant and intricate artwork, which often draws inspiration from the natural world and traditional Métis floral beadwork. Her paintings address themes such as environmental sustainability, Indigenous rights, and the revitalization of Indigenous languages and cultures.

David Altmejd is a Canadian artist known for his contemporary sculptures and installations. He demonstrates his mastery across diverse mediums, including sculpture, drawing, and installation art. Altmejd's sculptures often feature complex, fantastical narratives and are characterized by their meticulous craftsmanship. His works explore themes of transformation, mutation, and the intersection between the organic and the artificial.