Big six, Elicser Elliott, acrylic & spray painted for the library at UofT, 2023.
Celebrating Our City,
Realism,
and a Lot of Whimsy
Meet Elicser Elliott,
Mahtab Rezvani &Jes Young
Dear Friend of TOAF,
Dear *|FNAME|*,
TOAF65 was full of joy and joyful moments. There was even an award for it! This week, we’re sharing three award recipients we couldn’t have been more thrilled to celebrate.
Elicser Elliott, Mayor’s Purchase Award, presented by Mayor Olivia Chow
Elicser’s mark is all over this city, and it brightens our day, every day. You’ve likely spotted his soft characters and organic shapes in an alleyway or at a transit stop. He layers spray paint, acrylic and oil stick into dreamy, blended worlds. It’s so fitting and well deserved that Mayor Chow chose his work for the City of Toronto’s permanent collection. His inspiration comes from the things around us that nobody calls art, like broken signs and bits of peeling paint. He even started a movement for it on Instagram: #dontknowitsart.
Mahtab Rezvani, Ken Danby Award for Excellence in Realism
For our 65th, we honoured a piece of TOAF history. Ken Danby, one of Canada’s most celebrated realist painters, won Best of Exhibition at our very first Fair in 1961. The Rudolph P. Bratty Family Foundation generously supported this $6,500 award to honour Ken’s legacy and the Fair’s role as a launchpad for emerging artists. Mahtab is a self-taught artist who began her journey just four years ago. Her work weaves together nature and the human figure, evocatively blending realism and fantasy.
Jes Young, Gallery 1065 Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Advancement of Joy & Whimsy ($1,650)
At Jes’s booth, you could lounge around, dig through “trash,” hang out with pigeons and leave with cigarette butts in your pocket. Jes turns the leftovers of city life into a funny, thoughtful and playful critique of the resilience of artists. There’s no better fit for this award.
Read our blog post for the full Q&As. Each interview offers a glimpse into the artist’s world, and Elicser’s is an absolute treat. It’s so very Elicser.
And finally, we have an exciting new curated collection by Tiger Baby Coffee & Clay, a newly opened Toronto coffee shop and ceramic studio owned by siblings Thomas and Sarah Sawaya.
Enjoy,
anahita & the TOAF Team
Get to know Elicser
Mayor’s Purchase Award
“My Name is Elicser Elliott. I paint Graffiti in Toronto. Now that I’m older it has turned into, I paint murals in Toronto. I’m from the Caribbean. Born in Montreal and raised in St. Vincent. My work centres around nostalgia, pulling stories from my childhood. In my normal life, I paint murals with spray paint to earn a living. Then in the winter I paint canvases to show in the summer. I bike around the city to find good places to paint. I ride a fix gear bike. I’m getting older so I might make a single speed bike so it’s easier on my knees. I like underground hip hop from the 90’s and cartoons from the 80’s. I’m kind of a cinephile.. I love movies and black and white photos. I’m beginning to grow fond of the culinary arts.”
Walk us through your practice.
“My work is improvised collages of soft characters and organic shapes, layered and blendedthrough transparencies, with spray paint, acrylics and oil sticks. Inspirations for my characters often stem from my own past relationships and experiences. I have self diagnosed prosopagnosia. A condition where you can’t recognize faces or you struggle to remember people’s faces when they are not around. I first started experimenting with representing this faceblindness through a series of portraits with clearly identifiable but distorted faces. Coupled with drawing likenesses from passersby in my life, I combine the two to bring my works alive. I also like to paint on found objects, old photos, cereal boxes, baking trays, cheese boards, run over bits of metal signs in the street and even a tree once. I find the naked white canvas to be intimidating. I look to nature to start my canvas sometimes. I take my inspiration from things i find in the world that aren’t considered ‘art,’ like broken signs and bits of peeling paint and I started a movement on instagram called #dontknowitsart.”
Your work can be found all over the city and world, what do you think street art does for a city?
“One thing to understand that I don’t think the average art viewer gets. There’s a difference between Murals vs Street art vs Graffiti vs tags. Some people see it all as one thing. But they are separate institutions. They all have their own separate, different cultures. But one thing they have in common is that they make a city visually exciting. The interestingness of a city is automatically raised if there is graffiti running through its streets. I feel the city is talking to you when you see murals on the walls. When you read the graffiti you see the opinions of the people.”
Who are your dream artist dinner guests?
“I would have dinner with Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin at the yellow house and tell them chill it’s not that bad. It’s gonna work out for y’all soon. Hang in there. I would serve them froot loops cereal and strawberry pop tarts every other night and watch them wonder in amazement how something could taste so good and futuristic. The food will make them forget all their troubles and we could save an ear and have a couple more masterpieces for people to study.”
What’s coming up for you?
“The next venture I’m looking forward to is building art projects around the culinary arts. Merging art and food. I’m also a curator at Isza Gallery, where I make gallery programming for up and coming artist in Toronto to show their work.”
Hear from judges
Olivia Chow and Tara Chadwick
“The 2026 Mayor’s Purchase Award goes to Elicser Elliott for an untitled work from his series of portraits on re-used PRESTO receipts (Every Damn Day). The award winning piece depicts two passers by helping each other as we so often do in the City of Toronto, evoking a deep sense of the individual and collective daily life we all share. ”
— Olivia Chow, Mayor of Toronto & Tara Chadwick, Chief Curator, City of Toronto
Get to know Mahtab
Ken Danby Award for Excellence in Realism
“Hi, I’m Mahtab Rezvani, a self-taught figurative artist and storyteller based in King City, Ontario. I was born in Tehran, Iran, and painting had always been my dream. I started my professional art journey in 2022, during COVID, and promised myself that if I got through that uncertain time, I would finally give myself a chance to become a painter. Today, I mainly work with coloured pencils on cardboard, exploring the human figure, emotions, identity, and the stories we carry beneath the surface.”
Walk us through your practice
“Most of my work starts with an idea, a feeling, or something I can’t stop thinking about. I build my drawings slowly, layer by layer, using coloured pencils on cardboard. I’m drawn to the human figure because the body can express things words sometimes can’t. I often bring figures together with elements from nature, such as trees, water, apples, or animals, to tell a story and explore psychological states. I also work with acrylic and oil, but coloured pencil is the medium that feels most natural to me.”
Best/worst thing that’s happened to your work because it is part of an outdoor Fair?
“My favourite thing was watching children stop in front of my paintings and react so honestly. They don’t overthink it, and sometimes their reactions are priceless.”
Favourite colour to use in your work right now?
“Green, especially those deep, mysterious greens you find in trees, water, and nature.”
What’s it like watching a total stranger discover your work in a public square?
“I love watching someone discover my work without expecting to. At an outdoor fair, people are simply going about their day, and then suddenly they stop in front of a painting. When they become curious and take a moment to really look, it feels very genuine. A painting can unexpectedly become part of someone’s day.”
Hear from judge
Flavio Belli
“Realism embraces many styles, techniques, and artistic visions. In the spirit of Ken Danby’s legacy of extraordinary technical skill and an ever-expanding visual language, this award recognizes an artist whose exceptional command of drawing and shading brings natural, poetic, and deeply personal figures to life.”
— Flavio Belli, Curator & Gallerist
Get to know Jes
The Gallery 1065 Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Advancement of Joy & Whimsy
“Hiya, my name is Jes Young and I am a moldmaker and ceramicist in Toronto. I work as a fabricator for local artists, run my own ceramics studio, and can transform into a couch for my dog on her command. I spend most of my time covered in dust, sculpting, teaching, and just trying to make some sense of these days.”
Walk us through your practice.
“I create installations of ceramic multiples that mimic trash, infestations and urban pests in porcelain, after having much trouble finding space for myself in Toronto. I try to celebrate discarded subjects that once were beloved, now reviled, that make up moments in our everyday life. I aim to find space and welcome the forgotten things.”
This award is very fitting for your work, what drives you to make work that is joyful and whimsical?
“With subject matter about trying to belong, feeling like a pest, and overconsumption, it doesn’t sound like the most whimsical and joyful concept. When making pieces representative of this I want to translate this to moments overcoming these adversities, despite all odds and barriers as many artists and folks in Toronto do. I find there can be whimsy in adapting in creative ways and joy in finding your community in doing so.”
What’s next?
“Lots is coming up! A project for the Royal Botanical Gardens of Burlington, a large scale piece featuring some new iconic subjects of local pests, some small lovely commissions and custom work, and tons of research, experimentation, and development for new, intricate adaptable ceramic works. In addition I’m still operating and programming for my ceramic studio, Kitte Club, and supporting ceramic artists in the city who need a space to work, or firing and technical services!”
Favourite thing you’ve overheard someone say about your piece when walking by?
“Oh wow look at all the pigeons! And theres…garbage? Oh that’s… interesting.”
Hear from judge
Monica Gupta
“By capturing everyday moments and ephemera, Jes’s works celebrate life in the city, with the most whimsical ceramic pieces – including cigarette butts, ketchup packages, and the much maligned pigeon. There is wit, joy, and reactive play in each item and vignette created in their booth.”
— Monica Gupta, Owner, Gallery 1065
Tigerbaby Collection
Founded by Toronto siblings Thomas and Sarah Sawaya, TigerBaby Coffee & Clay blends specialty coffee with two pottery studios at 977 College St West. We visited the creative space and invited them to curate a collection of TOAF artworks. Their selection captures fleeting moments, holding onto summer while surrendering to the slowness of fall.
