Artist Project, Toronto’s leading art fair dedicated to independent contemporary artists, returns March 26–29, 2026 at a new venue, Enercare Centre, bringing together over 250 juried artists from across Canada for four days of art, discovery, and collecting.
In 2026, Artist Project reframes competition through the lived experience of artists themselves. Artists are no strangers to endurance, training for years to hone their skills, pushing beyond comfort zones, and committing to disciplined, often solitary practice in pursuit of their strongest work. The fair recognizes artistic practice as a test of stamina, focus, and risk, shaped by ambition and sustained effort.
THE ART OF THE GAME
Timed to coincide with Toronto’s role as a global city of sport later this summer, Artist Project introduces The Art of the Game, a featured juried exhibition inspired by sport, movement, and play. While sport provides the visual and conceptual spark, The Art of the Game also serves as a metaphor for the art world itself, where preparation, endurance, emotional stakes, and excellence define success.
“Competition exists at every level of the art world, from applying to a fair, to refining a practice, to standing out in a crowded field,” says Mia Nielsen, Director of Artist Project. “In a year when Toronto is welcoming the world through sport, Artist Project embraces competition not just as subject matter, but as a reality artists navigate every day.”
UNTAPPED: EMERGING ARTISTS COMPETITION
Artist Project 2026 also features Untapped, a juried initiative dedicated to supporting students, new graduates, and self-taught artists. The Untapped Emerging Artists Competition provides free exhibition space and a high-profile platform for artists at the early stages of their careers, offering opportunities to present work, build networks, and engage directly with collectors, curators, and the broader art community.
ARTISTS TO LOOK OUT FOR
Artist Project 2026 features a juried selection of over 250 independent artists, spanning emerging to established practices across painting, photography, sculpture, textile, mixed media, and installation.
Omar Inferno
Inferno’s life changed after winning the Artist Project’s Untapped People’s Choice Award, the festival’s signature competition dedicated to supporting students, new graduates, and self-taught artists. Inferno is a queer, Latin American artist known for his practice of “decreation”—burning prejudicially symbolic materials into ash pigment to explore cultural dissonance, family, and queer identity. Drawing from his experience as a trans man in a Latin American household, Inferno’s work examines constructions of masculinity and how worth and identity are shaped by labour while proposing rest, care, and tranquillity as dignified alternatives. Winning the award brought Inferno much-deserved recognition and helped him build meaningful connections within the contemporary art community.
Kyungmin Kate Lee
How does visibility shape who we become? This question lies at the heart of PLAYGROUND, a photographic series by Korean immigrant and diaspora artist Kyungmin Kate Lee. PLAYGROUND examines diasporic life through the shifting thresholds of visibility and invisibility—what is shown and what remains internal. Working across analog and digital processes, Lee uses infrared imaging, multiple exposures, and layered colour to transform everyday scenes into images that blur the boundary between documentation and imagination. The playground, in this context, functions as a social field where relationships and identities take shape. Reframed through the lens of immigrant family life, it becomes a transitional space where care, adaptation, and belonging are negotiated in real time. Through these tensions, PLAYGROUND traces ongoing processes of healing, identity reconstruction, and becoming.
Keight MacLean
How do the European Masters hold up in our modern age? Do their paintings still stand the test of time—literally? Toronto-based contemporary artist Keight MacLean offers a fresh answer, dedicating her career to honouring and cracking the foundations of centuries-old portrait tradition. Trained in Florence and inspired by the European Masters, MacLean fuses classical technique with bold, modern materials like spray paint and recycled plastics. Through mixed-media experimentation, she reflects on the body’s endurance and vulnerability, drawing parallels between historical objects and her own lived experience with disability. At Artist Project 2026, MacLean brings this vision to The Art of the Game, this year’s juried exhibition inspired by Toronto’s sport and movement. Across all platforms, her work not only speaks to artistic innovation but also invites audiences to reflect on the nature of strength, endurance, and vulnerability.
OPENING NIGHT PARTY
Artist Project 2026 launches with an Opening Night Party on Thursday, March 26, from 6 PM – 10 PM, offering first access to artwork across the fair alongside food, drinks, and a celebratory atmosphere. Opening night party tickets are only $39.00 and include unlimited re-entry to Artist Project from Friday–Sunday. For more information and pass prices and details for the entire weekend, visit www.theartistproject.com
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Nadia Elkharadly
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