Happy Van Gogh, ESTHER DOË KIM, 2026, Mixed media on canvas.
Playful 3D paintings to intricate etchings
Meet Esther Doë Kim and Roberto Centazzo
Dear Friend of TOAF,
We can all agree the TOAF65 awards program was epic. Our incredible community stepped up, and stepped in, with brand-new awards, and together we gave out $68,400 to celebrate 26 exceptional artists.
Now, as the autumn leaves begin to blow, we get to share their stories. We’re kicking things off with the two top honours of our 65th year, each an especially generous $10,000:
Best of Art Fair: Esther Doë Kim, supported by IG Wealth Management
Murray & Marvelle Koffler Founder’s Award: Roberto Centazzo, supported by the Koffler Foundation
Esther Doë Kim’s bright, witty works are playful, yet sophisticated, with a tactile sense of texture that makes you want to reach out and touch the canvas. In the words of judge Ana Serrano, Esther’s work is, “both visually captivating and emotionally generous.”
The Murray & Marvelle Koffler Founder’s Award, rooted in the history of the Fair, was presented to Roberto Centazzo. A participant since 2014, Roberto has shown stone mosaics, sculpture and more recently, copper plate etchings, using traditional techniques to build unique, imaginative worlds.
Get to know these artists, discover their work, and hear more about what our judges saw in their practices. Read our blog post for the full interviews with Esther and Roberto.
Also, look forward to discovering, selection by patricia grace . . . graceful, a gorgeous curated collection by our friend Patricia Grace Ewanika, the owner and designer of Toronto boutique EWANIKA.
With love,
anahita & the TOAF Team.
Get to know Esther
Best of Art Fair
“Hi! I’m Esther Kim, also known as DOË, my artist name. DOË comes from my Korean name and is actually a nickname my family and close friends have always called me. I’m a Korean-Canadian, Toronto-based artist and an OCAD University Fine Arts graduate. I create colourful, playful paintings that combine 2D and 3D elements. My work is all about finding little moments of joy, warmth, and imagination in everyday life”
Walk us through your practice.
“My work explores tender, fleeting moments through a playful yet deeply emotional visual language. I primarily work with acrylic, oil pastels, and markers, and I love building rich textures by layering different materials. One of my favourite parts is squeezing paint directly from the tube onto the canvas—it honestly feels like decorating a cake with icing!”
How long have you been showing at TOAF, and what’s different about your work now versus your first year at the fair?
“This is my fifth year participating in TOAF! Compared to my first year, my work has become much more dimensional, with more 3D elements and a wider range of stories and ideas. TOAF has also been such a meaningful part of my journey as an artist.”
Best (or worst) thing about being a part of an outdoor Fair?
“The scorching Toronto summer heat—which always leaves me with some pretty impressive tan lines! Honestly, it’s probably the best way to get a tan without going to the beach. But the best part is meeting new collectors and visitors and hearing their reactions to my work.”
Favourite thing you’ve overheard someone say about your piece when walking by?
“One of my favourite things to hear is when someone says that my work gives them an instant feeling of joy or whimsy just by looking at it.”
If you could have dinner with any artist, who would it be?
“My all-time favourite historical artists are Van Gogh and Matisse, but if I could choose a living artist, it would be Jonas Wood, who has been one of my biggest inspirations for years. His painting is actually on my phone’s home screen! And of course, I’d be serving Korean food—good food and good art sounds like the perfect dinner to me.”
Where is your dream artist residency location?
New York, or Seoul! Seoul would be my first choice. I’d love to return to my home country, reconnect with Korean culture and the art scene.
Hear from judge Ana Serrano
“I was struck by Esther Doë Kim’s body of work which is both visually captivating and emotionally generous. Through an original and deceptively sophisticated visual language, she invites us to see the familiar with renewed curiosity and delight. Her richly layered mixed media compositions and dynamic use of colour create narrative worlds that are playful, deeply felt, and rewarding to revisit, Kim’s works have an immediacy that feels instinctive while revealing a formal sophistication that makes a lasting impression long after the viewer has left.”
— Ana Serrano, President & Vice-Chancellor, OCAD University
Get to Know Roberto
Murray & Marvelle Koffler
Founder’s Award
“I’m Roberto, I’ve been involved in printing since I was 14. I trained in Venice, and spent my career working in offset prepress. While working at the Toronto Star, I witnessed the transition from analog to digital methods. As an artist, I now enjoy the return to tactile and manual skills of copper plate etching. This art form is a perfect medium for me to express my ideas, ancient and modern”
How long have you’ve been showing at TOAF, and what’s different about your work now versus your first year?
“My first show at TOAF was in 2014. The first few years, I showed my natural stone mosaics. A few times, I showed sculptures, some inlaid with mosaics and others in plaster and cement. The last four years, I have been showing my copper plate etching prints. I have always been drawn to landscapes and futuristic designs.”
Give us one moment from this year’s Fair weekend you know you’ll remember.
“On Friday this year, a couple came into my booth twice asking a lot of questions and seeming very interested. They returned a third time and I felt sure they were going to buy. But I was wrong. I was bummed. Any artist at TOAF knows this feeling. But the next day, I saw them a fourth time—at the award presentation! Turns out they were the judges for the Koffler Award. I wasn’t bummed anymore.”
Best (or worst) thing that’s happened to your work because it is part of an outdoor Fair— wind, rain, a curious dog, a kid’s reaction?
“A big wind picked up and scattered my prints across a busy walkway. Luckily some patrons helped me gather them before they got trampled. Twenty minutes later, it happened again!”
What country, city or place inspires you most artistically?
“Haliburton lakes and Canadian Shield country always inspires me. The other place is my imagination.”
Hear from award judges Flavio Belli and
Tiana Koffler Boyman
“Among many criteria, the Founder’s Award honours those whose vision is greater than the sum of their work. The ambition of the award is to help make a difference in the trajectory of the artist’s continued creative development and to contribute to their experimental material process. Roberto Centazzo is such an artist! In previous years he has exhibited sculpture, mosaics, and more recently, metal plate etching, or intaglio. Always evolving, yet always consistent in quality, the challenge of an exacting technique, and very importantly, in a harmonious visual continuum.”
— Tiana Koffler Boyman, Board Director and past Chair, Koffler Arts & Flavio Belli, Curator & Gallerist
Selection by Patricia Grace
. . . graceful
Curated by Lay-Up, a charity using basketball to create spaces where young people can belong, EVERY KID NEEDS A TEAM is a collection that brings together works selected by members of the Lay-Up team— our 401 Richmond nighbors and “work crushes”— reflecting their belief that our individual perspectives and strengths make the collective stronger.
P.S. This collection is the first piece in our Neighborly Love series, in which we ask our wonderful 401 Richmond neighbors to curate collections of artwork that speak to them.
