Image credit: The Artist Project Toronto

Each year, I look forward to The Artist Project, Toronto’s epic contemporary art fair, rolling around to break up the winter blahs. It’s a much-needed explosion of colour and artistic talent in one of my favourite (though inarguably frigid) cities.

This year, The Artist Project promises over 250 top contemporary artists from across Canada, and around the world. From the early access preview and launch party Feb 22 to closing at 6pm on the 25th, the Better Living Centre at Exhibition Place comes alive in vibrant energy and spellbinding colour.

A couple of cool sessions and activities I’m really hoping to check out this year:

• Emily Glover and Sarah Gurevich’s session, How to Protect Your Art Physically & Digitally. (Obviously this is a topic near and dear to my heart!)
• Kelly Juhasz, President of the Canadian Chapter of the International Society of Appraisers, giving a talk on art buying tips for new collectors.
• Art Battle, the super popular live painting competition, which is happening Friday evening on the show floor (more info here).
• UNTAPPED, which gives 20 emerging artists from all mediums a chance to wow us with their artworks at the exhibition with no cost to them.

MEET TALENTED TORONTO & AREA ARTISTS; EXPLORE LOCAL & INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY WORKS

I’m excited to see the works of talented Toronto artists like Anand Juggernauth, who’s an Emerging Toronto Artist and also currently the Resident Artist for Canada’s Stock Exchange. Jennifer Elliotson, who works out of an old barn in Jordan Station, Ontario, is bringing a cool collection of works on canvas featuring vintage trailers. Another homegrown artistic hero, Toronto artist Richard Ahnert, will share a collection that tells stories of the unique relationships we share with our friends in the animal kingdom.

I can’t wait to see these artists and more (you can check out the artist gallery here) at Artist Project.

Will we see you there? If you aren’t going to be in the Toronto area for the big event, you can still follow along on Twitter and Instagram–use the hashtags #behindtheart and #ArtistProject to join the conversation online.

And stay tuned to the UCSArt blog–I’ll be sharing the experience with you from the venue!

– Ted Ratcliffe, UCSArt.com

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