OSA 2025 OPEN JURIED EXHIBITION

Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Statement of Intent: The silhouetted bear brings a complex sense of meaning. A powerful bear is symbolic of resilience in the face of adversity— a reflection of how we, the Canadian people, are responding to the current crisis. As always, strength, endurance, and determination surface from our quiet. A bear moves through a burnt resurging forest. Canadians move through times of hardship, carrying with them the memory of our land. Whether facing disasters, social struggles, or global uncertainty, the people of Canada show strength to endure and renew. The bear’s slow, steady presence speaks to the quiet power that sustains a community even in the darkest times. The bear, also a symbol of protection,survival, and regeneration, mirrors the Canadian spirit. It represents the steadfast commitment to preserving what matters most — our land, our people, our collective spirit. We rise above our challenges, finding new hope and purpose even when the path is unclear. The bear is a reminder of the power of unity, the importance of perseverance, and the quiet strength that definesCanada in times of crisis. I have faith: the people of Canada, like the bear, will carry on proving that renewal is always possible.
Sale Price: $900.00

Medium: Sumi-e (Japanese Brush Painting on washi)
Statement of Intent: Medium: Asian brush painting using Chinese inks on Japanese paper, mounted onto a gallery birch panel; black floating frame. Silent Night is more than a peaceful evening — it’s a celebration of what makes Canada eternal. Under the shimmering aurora borealis, framed by strong winter trees and the glow of a welcoming home, two girls carve their own world of joy into a frozen pond, playing hockey under the vast northern sky. It’s a scene stitched into the soul of this nation — the purest form of Canada’s game, our own original Hockey Night in Canada. Silent Night reminds us that no matter how the world shifts, Canada will never be anything but Canada. Proudly made in Canada, and proudly Canadian.
Sale Price: $3000.00

Medium: Mix Media
Statement of Intent: This artwork is one of five from the Fox Island series that explores the emotional and digital dislocations embedded in contemporary life. Inspired by a remote trek through Georgian Bay's desolate Fox Island, these paintings reflect on the fractured nature of connection in the digital age. I used acrylic and airbrush to layer hazy pixel-like distortions, evoking static, noise, and the eerie solitude of mediated memory. The imagery, based on photos of my friend leading the hike, feels both intimate and alien, as if I were trailing a ghost rather than a companion. Artificial light from our headlamps becomes the series’ visual and symbolic anchor: an unsettling intrusion into the natural world. This synthetic illumination references both Caravaggio’s tenebrism and the harsh glare of digital life, revealing a landscape charged with tension rather than peace. The North in this series is not quiet—it flickers, fractures, and resists stillness. By channeling the aesthetic of over-compressed digital imagery, these works echo the distortion of memory, identity, and intimacy in an age of mediated connection. Fox Island reflects a world in flux, where even the wilderness hums with disquiet.
Sale Price: $100.00

HONOURABLE MENTION

Medium: Mixed Media, Digital Illustration with Augmented Reality Animation
Statement of Intent: I am a New Media Artist, creating works in digital Illustrative art and animation. I incorporate Augmented Reality Animations to add another layer to my illustrative work. I explore queer themes, and expressions, and the world around them. My intent is to share my work to further discussions in an inclusive interactive environment. "Stink Soup" is about the current environment of our economy, and the state of corporate greed, impacting our food supply chain, and gouging our ability to financially succeed. Further dividing wealth, classism. The Digital Illustration and Augmented Reality Animation can be viewed using an APP called Artivive, on most digital devices. It is free to download via Apple or Google. Using your device with the APP installed you can view the illustration, and the AR animation will play on your device. I have included a video of the Augmented Reality Animation in this application. If accepted I will include the instructions to view the work.
Sale Price: $250.00

Medium: continuous charcoal drawing on paper and stop motion video in a plexi box on a continuous loop
Statement of Intent: What inspires me to create a video and drawing of the boreal forest is a deep respect for this vast and vital ecosystem that stretches across much of Canada. The boreal forest is not only breathtakingly beautiful—it plays a critical role in supporting biodiversity, regulating our climate, and maintaining clean air and water. Through my creative work, I hope to raise awareness of its importance and inspire others to appreciate and protect it. By capturing the forest’s quiet strength, its rich variety of life, and its deep connection to the land and people, I aim to spark curiosity and a sense of responsibility. In a time when natural environments are increasingly under threat, it’s essential that we understand what we stand to lose—and what we can still protect. My art is a call to look closer, learn more, and take action.
Sale Price: $3500.00

Medium: acrylic on paper
Statement of Intent: What inspires me to create a painting of the Boreal winter is the quiet power and beauty of this season in one of Canada’s most important ecosystems. The Boreal forest in winter is both harsh and peaceful—a place where life endures despite the cold, and where the stillness holds deep meaning. This forest plays a vital role in supporting biodiversity, storing carbon, and sustaining Indigenous and northern communities. By capturing its winter landscape through art, I hope to help others see the strength and fragility of this environment. In a time of climate change and habitat loss, it’s more important than ever to understand and protect the Boreal forest. My painting is a way to connect people with the land, to invite reflection, and to inspire care for this vast and essential part of Canada.
Sale Price: $2000.00

Medium: Watercolour
Statement of Intent: "Agains The Current" was created entirely from intuition. The technique was pure improvisation. The concept of a lone boat fighting against the current holds deep symbolic meaning. It draws inspiration from Greek mythology, particularly Charon, the ferryman who transports souls across the rivers Acheron and Styx, which separate the worlds of the living and the dead. In a contemporary context, this painting evokes the tension of identity and belonging, particularly in a landscape shaped by colonial legacy and political complexity. The stark contrasts, black, white, and fractured blue - mirror a nation divided and yet deeply entwined. The quiet gesture of defiance is not loud, but it is deliberate. It speaks to the invisible forces that shape the North: resilience in the face of pressure, solitude in motion, and the power of stillness as a stance. The ropes may be thin, but the will is unbroken. This work was inspired by both natural solitude and socio-political undercurrents, how stillness itself can be an act of resistance. Against the Current is a reflection on the lived reality of those who do not fit the expected flow, and the dignity in choosing a different direction.
Sale Price: $650.00

Medium: Mixed Media
Statement of Intent: This sculpture is from an on gong series "In the Round' that began in 2016 and continues to this day. In "Going Around in Circles", I set out to explore the fragmented and often persecutory nature of the many “spheres” we inhabit in today’s world—social, political, psychological, and personal. These overlapping domains can feel disorienting, even contradictory, and I wanted to give form to that experience. To do this, I used the sphere as a visual and conceptual starting point. I combined fabricated elements with found materials, including aged metal objects and vintage maps, to create a sculpture that reflect a sense of tension and dissonance. By bringing together incongruent materials and forms, the work invites viewers to consider the complexities and collisions within the environments we move through
Sale Price: $5000.00

Medium: Mixed Media (Cedar post, wire, bird's nest)
Statement of Intent: To be of this place is to carry weight and wonder together. It is to feel the scorch of our past and the pride of our future. It is to accept that this land is made of burning and bloom, Of whitewash and weathered truth, Of severance and of reconciliation. To be of this place is to remember what is more comfortable to forget. It is to question what it means to hold beauty and harm in the same breath. It is to acknowledge that there is no stillness here, Only quiet tension and a tender beauty, A unified resistance, And a will to remain. To be of this place is to know that Like a delicate nest tucked deep in a wound, Tender and persistent, We commit to something greater. We are not finished. We are not whole. But we are home.
Sale Price: $950.00

Medium: oil on canvas
Statement of Intent: “Snowbird Pride” is one of a series of visual stories of brief reflective moments. Depicted here are the inspiring Snowbirds, a symbol Canadian aviation excellence. An oil painting using traditional techniques in a contemporary way.
Sale Price: $350.00

Medium: Chromogenic print of mixed-media diorama
Statement of Intent: My dioramas explore the many challenges we face as a society: climate, food security, housing, etc. in a playful and approachable manner. They encourage discussion among people of all ages. I have been creating a new diorama each week for more than two years and use miniature figures, realistic toy animals and photographic backgrounds to complete my scenes. I install them in a light box in my front garden in downtown Toronto where passersby linger to talk about the issues they explore. The photograph is the permanent document of each ephemeral creation. This mixed-media diorama depicts six different animals in Canada’s north under threat of a “takeover” by the President of the United States. The black bear is standing strong on top of a structure made out of (altered) Canadian money, while the US currency swirls around, blizzard-like, in the background. On the right hand side, the log cabin suggests home and comfort, but on the left, as we see the interior of the same cabin exposed, we see the exploitation of our wildlife as depicted by taxidermy.
Sale Price: $400.00

Medium: Acrylic on Cradled Wood Panel
Statement of Intent: “Mystic” Sue Gamble Living in the Boreal forest created Mystic. I’ve had a fascination with ravens and often talk to them. They came to collect nest material from my shedding horses in spring which I would set out for them. This guy landed on the railing outside of my studio and stayed long enough for me to capture his presence with my iPhone. The moose skull was given to me by a local Indigenous fellow. The skull arrived as quite a surprise as I neither asked for it nor expected it. One day my husband came home from his geological work with the skull in hand saying that Steve sent this for me. What a treasure! The surrounding Boreal forest knitted the two into one painting.
Sale Price: $1500.00

Medium: Mixed media on paper, mounted on wood panel
Statement of Intent: From my personal vision of biodiversity and our fundamental link to the earth, I seek to paint the various states that can emerge from the living world in the face of multiple obstacles in the environment, navigating around resilience, fragility, imbalance, strength, instinct, adaptation... My sensitivity to nature pushes me to draw from within myself a form of authentic expression that connects me to the rest of life on earth. The polar bear is a strong symbol of climate change, facing the consequences in its direct environment. In this painting, he is swimming against the current, moved by the desire to survive, with all the strength he can find.
Sale Price: $940.00

Medium: Photography
Statement of Intent: This image captures more than a moment of protest – it documents our nation's ongoing reckoning with its past, and more crucially, its present. The stark honesty in her expression challenges our collective conscience. While Winnipeg's beauty frames the scene, it's the raw emotion that commands our attention – a powerful reminder that beneath Canada's pristine veneer lies a history we can no longer ignore. Her stance embodies both grief and determination, anger and hope. This photograph serves as more than documentation; it's a mirror reflecting our contemporary responsibility. It's easy to condemn historical injustices from the comfortable distance of time, but the true test lies in recognizing and addressing the systemic inequities that persist today. The orange shirt she wears isn't just a symbol of remembrance – it's a call to action.
Sale Price: $1250.00

Medium: Watercolour Pencil (Aquarelle) + Phototransfer on Arches Paper)
Statement of Intent: The Province of Canada (yes Province) began issuing stamps in 1851 even before our Confederation. There was a Canada even before Canada! I think there is some comfort in that, given recent threats to our sovereignty. And this was its first stamp. That seems uniquely Canadian – looking to the native and industrious beaver rather than a far off king, as an icon of the country – and one that has remained ever since. The beaver building a dam was supposed to also be symbolic of the people in the young country building their communities, as well as the importance of beaver skins in trade. I wanted to recreate this icon, and thought of its probable printing with uneven and unstable inks, its mostly monochromatic palette, and the distance from us today. To create a ‘filter’ that spoke to this, I used watercolour pencils to give a somewhat grainy and uneven quality, as well as breaking the image up into large pixels – what we understand of most printing today. Thus the information contained in the image is slightly incomplete, but also entirely there. One has to work a little harder at it. But quiet, steadfast and determined, the people of Canada, like our national animal, will persevere.
Sale Price: $250.00

HONOURABLE MENTION

Medium: Fibre / Mixed-Media
Statement of Intent: I have grave concern for climate change and our deteriorating environment. While world leaders debate and vacillate their commitment to our climate crisis, environmental emergencies escalate. This is ultimately an existential threat to human existence on earth! In FRAGILE PLANET, a subtle, detailed (and extremely accurate) map of the world is freemotion stitched over deconstructed then reconstructed canvas – to illustrate how this single issue unites all countries, continents and people. The filigree netting and delicate blue/green colours are frail – like our fragile ecosystems in need of protection. The dyed and distressed 'military fatigue' surface is a reminder that climate change must be fought like a war, and our present strategy is losing that war! FRAGILE PLANET is visually serene (as world leaders either deny or ignore this escallating problem), however it’s message is a bold call to action.
Sale Price: $2400.00

Medium: multi media and acrylic paint
Statement of Intent: This confrontational multi media art piece created by Astrid, attempts to invoke a dialogue about war and peace.  With the use of collaged statements such as "IS THIS IT", "DANGEROUS" and "AND JUST LIKE THAT", an element of confrontation is created, evoking an emotional response from normally peaceful Canadians. The collaged background invites the viewer to explore beyond the immediate image of the sunflower; to discover prose and songs that deliver a message. The striking use of colour and the red dripping paint draw attention to the sunflower, transforming a typically cheerful symbol into something that has been wounded, poignant and thought provoking. The flowing lines of the plant contrast with the fragmented busy background. The emotional intensity communicated through colour and the dripping effect is compelling, inviting viewers to pause and reflect. The sunflower has become an international symbol of solidarity with Ukraine. Images of sunflowers appear in protests, social media and public art around the world. It has become a powerful emblem of hope, peace, identity and defiance.
Sale Price: $575.00

Medium: acrylic on canvas
Statement of Intent: The Canadian Flag gives me shivers down my spine every single time I see one, on cars, buses, houses, front lawns, gardens or beaches, on flagpoles everywhere, that stunning red leafed banner causes my heart to swell at the sight. As a Metis I honour my age-old heritage, making our own tipi for others’ firsthand experience, including our Lieutenant Governor Hilary Weston, such a thrill! Dancers in full Regalia celebrate gifts from the land, from the grass to the wildlife for hunters to nourish their tribes. As always, the Sacred Eagle perennially guides the skies with wisdom and sight, we know we are always protected. I jump for JOY at my freedom to be and to choose my expressions in a country that allows me to be free.
Sale Price: $1700.00

Medium: Clay and granite
Statement of Intent: The inspiration behind my sculpture was to convey what has happened in the past several months in Canada. As a proud Canadian I felt fortunate with our relationship we had with the US. I spend much time traveling there and taking workshops from talented artists across the States. Since Trump came into power I went from feeling deep saddness and than strong anger over his aggressiveness towards Canada. We are Canadians now and always. We will never allow being bullied by a paper president.
Sale Price: $950.00

Medium: oil on panel
Statement of Intent: There is obviously a 'disagreement'. I cannot say what it is about, but probably just about something petty and unimportant. But on this sunny day with a pretty blue sky it has escalated and there will be blood. A witness underground is quietly listening. He / she has no intention of getting involved.
Sale Price: $2000.00