2024 Award Winners

Dylan Glynn – Dylan Glynn is a painter, author and animator based out of Toronto, Canada. His multidisciplinary practice which includes a broad selection of traditional media (watercolour, oils, pen and ink, collage), 2d cel-animation, and Photoshop is unified by Glynn’s signature application which they describe as “one-shot, first-thought best-thought, perfectly imperfect”. In effect, Glynn brings the decisiveness and vitality of a 30-second gesture drawing to every medium they explore. The resulting images have a sense of raw energy and fresh colour as opposed to feeling muddy and overworked.

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Linda Martinello – Linda Martinello's energetic and visceral depictions of landscapes are informed by specific and fabricated histories through the lens of her Mexican and Italian heritage. Martinello's process is grounded in establishing an archive through extensive travels, during which she collects observational drawings, notes, and videos over the course of several months. Subsequently, she utilizes this material in her studio to produce works that synthesize painting, drawing, and collage. Her expressive drawing loosely describes architectural and geographical elements, while her intuitive use of colour evokes the emotional resonance of a particular location.

Martinello completed her MFA at the University of Waterloo and received an Honors BA from the University of Toronto. Her work is included in many prominent private, public and corporate collections, including Cadillac Fairview, BMO Financial Group, CIBC Bank, TD Financial Group, and TELUS. She has received several awards and research grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council Grants, the SSHRC Graduate Research Scholarship, and the University of Waterloo President's Graduate Scholarship among other awards. Martinello is based in rural Caledon and teaches at the Ontario College of Art + Design University. She is represented by Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto.

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Hibah Mian – Hibah Mian is a curator, creative director and educator. The core of her work is to consider public dimensions in the context of changing demographics and cultural innovation as society progresses. Hibah has managed and directed city wide projects such as ArtworxTO: Toronto’s Year of Public Art 2021 - 2022, Cultural Hotspot, No Vacancy in support of ShowLoveTO, alongside curatorial projects for Mississauga Arts Council, Visual Arts Mississauga, Manifesto, Museums of Mississauga and others. As a curator, she encourages exploration in the arts while combating judgment towards minority demographics in the industry. Hibah's discursive practice and new working methods as a site for education is seen in her role of a part-time professor at Humber and UofT, teaching courses in Arts Management. Hibah also teaches arts and event production courses with institutions alike and shares room through guest facilitation and speaking for a range of programs and platforms to amplify POC voices. Her cross-section of teaching methods with a curatorial voice introduces an everyday approach to learning and shape critical discourse.