Ignite Gallery

Ignite Installation Award Winner Hayeon Song White Bull, 2026 Cardboard, staples, tape, PVA glue, hot glue, graphite, tracing paper, methyl-cellulose Approx. 192 x 73 x 62 in White Bull is a full-scale cardboard reconstruction of a Mercedes-Benz AMG GLC 63 S E Performance Coupe, approximately sixteen feet long. The project began by photographing cars of this model in Toronto’s financial district, following them through the city as a pedestrian spectator, their tinted windows reflecting the stark contrast between anonymous spectacle and suspicious voyeur. In parallel, the work draws loosely on the myth of Pasiphaë, who constructed a wooden decoy bull to seduce a divine animal, a white bull, leading to the conception of the man-beast Minotaur. In this obsessive act of imitation through reconstruction, the decoy negotiates the uneasy boundary between admiration, aspiration, and parody in the spectacle of luxury @ocaduniversity #GradEx111

Ignite Installation Award Winner Matt Trinh The Artificial Happiness Machine, 2026 Metal, Wood, Acrylic Paint, Motor H8’x L20’x W9’ In this work, the continuity between human and environment becomes a form of embodied connection and disconnection. It serves as a meditation on nature as both metaphor and medium for society’s tendency to use domestic distractions to mask a deeper sense of emptiness. The reality is that all artificial constructs designed to mimic nature create a fabricated sense of happiness. Consequently, a growing disconnect emerges from the city people’s perception of reality. This mechanical artscape compels us to reflect on our modern-day regressions and ponder what it truly means to coexist harmoniously with nature’s elements. It is an invitation to reconnect with the colourful world around us. @ocaduniversity #GRADEX111

Installation Award Winner Callum Donovan-Grujicich Donovan-Grujicich process-based senior thesis project investigates objects that once existed in close proximity to the human body and facilitated comfort within domestic spaces. Once discarded or resold, these objects are reabsorbed into ecosystems of anonymous exchange, retaining only traces of their former use and ownership. I am interested in the processes of dispossession that render such objects into mere matter and open them to reinterpretation according to their physical properties. For this project, materials were sourced through resale platforms such as Facebook Marketplace and MaxSold.com. Drawing from my research in actor-network theory,post dramatic theatre, the history of new media, and the hidden mechanisms that permit the smooth functioning of everyday devices, I have constructed a moving assemblage of interrelated sculptures that act as embryonic media technologies. They adopt the forms of receivers, probes, and barriers, and draw from my familiarity in vernacular or ‘’improvised’’ forms of technology such as those found in DIY engineering content on YouTube. Objects are ground, pulped, or otherwise dematerialized and reconstituted in processes of ‘’unworlding’’ and ‘’reworlding’’ that estrange and reconfigure them according to their manyaffordances. The resulting devices imply a potential for sound, speech, or communication, yet fail to successfully address. Their operations suggest attempts at contact with an absent subject whose presence can only be inferred through the material traces of the original object. #gradex111 @ocaduniversity

Ignite Gallery Installation Award Winner Adewole Louis Parking Lot, Satellite, Hailstorm, 2026 Aluminum T-slot extrusion, Aluminum pipe, Brass hose fittings, Steel, Chrome-plated Steel Grid, Acrylic, glass, Inkjet laser-printed Windows XP Screen Saver (Bliss), Acrylic medium, Ultrasonic sensor, Arduino Uno, Breadboard, Two-channel relays, Self-priming pump, fan, Concrete 7’0” X 1’8” X 0’6” I explore the tension between physical presence and digital representation, examining the loss of embodied experience (spatial exploration, temporal duration, material resistance, bodily consequences) in tandem with the feelings of complicity and seduction that lead us to willingly trade physical presence for virtual convenience despite recognizing the cost. @ocaduniversity #gradex111

IGNITE GALLERY 
Annual Call for Submissions 2026  Apply by June 2, 2026  Ignite Gallery is a contemporary exhibition space showcasing emerging talent from Canada’s leading art and design university. Continuing a 47-year tradition, Ignite Gallery amplifies the creative voices of OCAD University’s students and recent graduates.  Each spring, Ignite Gallery releases its annual call for submissions. All applications are reviewed by the Gallery’s Selection Committee, which includes the Gallery’s Coordinators, as well as representatives from OCAD U’s faculty and student body. Only successful applicants will be contacted by the end of June.  We welcome submissions from individual artists, designers, and curators, as well as group applications. While solo exhibitions will not be accommodated, individual applicants may be grouped together by the Selection Committee to form a curated exhibition. The committee strives to create a balanced program that reflects the diverse range of work produced across all OCAD U programs.  Ignite Gallery is committed to exhibition equity and strongly encourages applications from members of equity-seeking communities, including women, racialized and Indigenous persons, persons with disabilities, and individuals of all sexual orientations and gender identities/expressions.  Submission Requirements  All applications are reviewed by the Gallery’s Selection Committee.  Deadline: 5:00 p.m. (EST), June 2, 2026  Submission Format: 
Submit a single PDF file titled with your name (yourname.pdf) and email it to: [email protected]. Your application must include:  • Full Contact Information: Name, phone number, and email.  • Website and/or Social Media Handles (if applicable).  • Artist Statement (maximum 100 words).  • Examples of Past Projects in a single PDF, including:  • Up to 10 images or 5 minutes of time-based media (file size not exceeding 30 MB).  For inquiries, contact: [email protected] Poster by @nasrinetesami

Announcing the Winners of Ignite Gallery’s 2026 Installation Award ✨ A huge congratulations to: Matt Trinh Adewole Louis Callum Donovan-Grujicich Hayeon Song Join us for the Ignite Gallery Installation Award Exhibition May 6, 2026 Ignite Gallery Don’t miss the chance to experience these incredible artists and their work. #IgniteGallery #InstallationAward #ArtExhibition #GradEx111 #ContemporaryArt @hawk_mtx @callumdgart @louis_adewole @praxidikexxvii @ocaduniversity

Points of Contact  Madeline Wilmink   IAMD  April 1-5th Points of contact is an interdisciplinary project that focuses on the detrimental impacts of insect extermination culture. This body of work challenges social biases against insects, traversing the boundaries between human and inhuman, inverting interior and exterior, transposing soft and rigid. The work explores visceral connections between insects and humans, illustrating interspecies codependency via cast iron and bronze forms. The exhibition features a series of sculptural abstractions of insect and human anatomy that have been forcefully exposed to a variety of chemicals commonly used as pesticides. Through skeletal fragments, contorted nervous systems, and oxide exposures the installation repositions insects and steps beyond collective histories of interspecies friction. Biosurrealism becomes a lens of speculative kinship and bodies are transformed from sites of friction to systems of interdependence and joint suffering.

Illusion of Time MFA Thesis Exhibition by Liv Qiu This body of work is a material exploration and meditation on time. My interest lies in the hybridity of reality, blending physical and virtual space - where different media capture fleeting moments. Bringing these together, I manifest time as non-linear, untwining meaning from permanence, rearranging fragmented space and time. Gallery Hours April 1–6, 2026 1–6 pm Opening: April 2, 6–9 pm Location Ignite Gallery 100 McCaul St, Toronto @livontheedgeart @ocadugrad

llusion of Time MFA Thesis Exhibition by Liv Qiu This body of work is a material exploration and meditation on time. My interest lies in the hybridity of reality, blending physical and virtual space - where different media capture fleeting moments. Bringing these together, I manifest time as non-linear, untwining meaning from permanence, rearranging fragmented space and time. Gallery Hours April 1–6, 2026 1–6 pm Opening: April 2, 6–9 pm Location Ignite Gallery 100 McCaul St, Toronto . #IllusionOfTime #MFAExhibition #TorontoArt #NewMediaArt #immersiveart

Sister Ancestor  By Inéz Petrazzini and Kai Petrazzini  IAMD  March 24th-30th 2026 (Ignite Gallery, East Side)  A joint reception held by Maria Khan and me, on March 25th from 5pm to 8pm This exhibition pays homage to the artist’s little sister-ancestor Kai (2005 - 2018). Informed by her Jamaican and Argentine cultural heritage, Inéz draws on ancestral spiritual practices to create a space for life to be celebrated and grief to be shared and transformed across generations of living and non-living kin. This collection of paintings, sculptures, and engravings combines a range of mediums including herbs, leaves, shells, and reshaped textiles from Kai’s clothing. @inez.trespies @ocadugrad

Proof of Residence MFA Thesis Exhibition — Maria Khan March 25–30 Opening Reception: Wednesday, March 25, 5–8 PM Ignite Gallery, 100 McCaul On belonging, and the quiet dissonance of inhabiting in-between spaces. @mariakhan396 @ocadugrad . #ArtInToronto #ContemporaryArt #torontoArt

𝘚’𝘦𝘯𝘧𝘢𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘭𝘦 𝘲𝘶𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘯 is for anyone who feels like they’re stumbling on the everyday: buried in to-do lists, running left & right, weighted down by life admin tasks, slowed down by a hostile internet landscape… For you, for us, I crafted a home space where we can rest & exist as we are. I wanted to create a place to talk about how it feels to live in this world, and how we can slow down together ❤️‍🔥 Neurodivergent folks to the front! There’ll be stim toys and a resting space in the gallery ✨ An infinite thank you to everyone who dedicated their time to this install. Truly wouldn’t have been possible without the help of you all. It’s been very touching & emotional for me to see the community I’ve built here. I feel so loved and surrounded. I hope to see you soon! Running from Thursday 19th—Sunday 22nd, opening is Friday March 20th 🐸 At Ignite Gallery East, 100 McCaul Street. @ignitegallery @ocadugrad @openstudio_toronto