Art Stories
3 Days of Stories, Inspiration & Connection
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Join a talk or a multitude of talks from individuals from Friday to Sunday, where select exhibitors and partners take the stage. Each session offers a rare glimpse behind the canvas, allowing you to hear directly from the artists about the meaning behind their work, their career, the journey, personal inspirations, or the themes they explore.
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Whether it's a story of bold experimentation, cultural heritage, or a collector’s first acquisition, each talk is followed by a live Q&A, giving you the chance to engage directly with the speaker.
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This is your opportunity to connect more deeply with the art and the people behind it.
Highlights from the 2026 Artist Lineup
Friday, May 29
Kolasa, Rosemary
Painting the memory of light
Rosemary Kolasa is a multidisciplinary African-Canadian artist whose creative expression flows through painting, music, and writing. Deeply rooted in the natural world, her work invites viewers to pause, reflect, and reconnect with the quiet beauty of life. Through sweeping landscapes, RK captures the essence of emotion, memory, and presence.​
Friday, 1:50 PM
Booth #408
Palmer, Lara
Change your View, Change your World
For 16 years, Lara Palmer has lived immersed in Tofino’s wild coast, where ocean, forest, and sky meet. An award-winning Creative Director with a B.A. from the Ontario College of Art & Design, Lara brings a sharp conceptual eye and global creative experience to her photography-based art practice. A surfer and passionate observer of nature, Lara began creating conceptual photography in 2024, collaborating with the rhythms of tides, light, and living ecosystems. Her work transforms Tofino’s landscapes into immersive, perception-based experiences that reveal new ways of seeing and inspire wonder. Lara’s work has been featured at the Tofino Gallery of Contemporary Art, the Long Beach Lodge Artist Series, the Henry Nolla Gallery at the Wickaninnish Inn, and the Harmony Arts Festival in West Vancouver.
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Friday, 2:15 PM
Booth # 103
Lanusse, Silvina
PaperScapes: Art That Changes the Longer You Live With It
Based on Vancouver Island, Silvina Lanusse gathers fragments—torn paper, vintage letters, sheet music, old maps, and pieces of memory—and weaves them into collage landscapes. When life felt broken, she found a way to put it back together on her panels, a recurrent, ongoing process of repair and reflection. Each piece emerges from chaos into quiet, layered harmony, guided by intuition and the beauty of the unexpected.
Originally from Argentina, Silvina brings a bold sense of color and an instinctive touch to her layered narratives. Her paintings inhabit a space of “in-between”—between places, memories, and moments—offering viewers a chance to recognize themselves in the fragments she reassembles.
An exhibiting member of the Federation of Canadian Artists, Silvina’s work has also been featured as cover art for poetry collections, where word and image meet with the intimacy, rhythm, and resonance that define her practice.
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Friday, 3:00 PM
Booth #202
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Payumo, Melani
My artisit path and creative evolution
Filipino-Canadian artist Payumo creates vibrant, esoteric paintings inspired by mystical visions of love and life. Her work reflects a deep spiritual journey, intuition, and connection to the world around her.
Trained at the Vargas Museum of the University of the Philippines under the mentorship of Fernando B. Sena, Payumo developed a distinct style defined by angelic themes, sacred geometry, and a celebration of color and form. Through her art, Payumo encourages viewers to feel life, embrace joy, and discover meaning in creative expression. Her paintings are a luminous invitation to connect with spirit, emotion, and imagination.
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Friday, 3:25 PM
Booth #508
Ju, Jayden
We will not be Erased
Jayden Ju is a Seattle-based young artist whose work is distinguished by large-scale compositions and highly detailed imagery created entirely from imagination. At age 9, he explores bold visual storytelling through layered linework, dynamic structures, and immersive worlds that invite viewers to look closer and discover new details over time.
His practice is intuitive and process-driven, often evolving organically from initial marks into complex compositions. Jayden’s work reflects a natural curiosity, strong focus, and a unique ability to balance scale with intricate detail.
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Friday, 3:50PM
Booth #607
Adam, Iqra
Inside an abstract mind
Iqra Adam is a mixed-media artist/colorist based in Calgary. His artwork explores happy and thoughtful sides of life. I use bright, bold colors to capture joyful everyday moments—those little things that make us smile and laugh. On the other hand, I also create monotone pieces that reflect memories and deeper emotions. This mix of colorful and quiet works creates a balance between happiness and reflection. He paint with lots of vibrant colors in a raw fashion. He intuitively start his paintings with a thought or a feeling and let the colors and patterns guide me throughout the creation process. He use many materials like acrylics, watercolors, inks, and oil paint sticks. His colorful paintings are full of texture and life, while my monotone ones are energetic but naturally deeper in meaning. He believe even small memories can be powerful when shown in monotones.
While painting, he follow the philosophy of ‘Imperfect, yet undeniably perfect in its uniqueness’ in his artwork. His colorful paintings aims to bring a sense of joy and freshness into the home, filling empty walls with happiness, warmth and life, while his monotone pieces offer a quiet moment of nostalgia because he create them to revive memories and past events of life. He believe that monotones are a great way to represent memories because simplicity and contrast can amplify the intensity of our thoughts and memories. Together, they represent different sides of life—love, happiness, memories, and emotions.
Although, Adam have been painting for past decade, he only recently began sharing my work online through social media platforms. But, over this small period of time, he have received huge appreciation and support from the local community of Calgary and other artists he met, which motivates him to continue evolving his practice and artistic voice.
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Friday, 4:15 PM
Booth #306A
Lilah, Sky
Sky Lilah, an artist with a mission, utilizes her creative prowess to cultivate a sense of
well-being, firmly believing that every individual is an artist in their own right.
Creativity is the vibrant thread weaving through all facets of her life, manifesting in a profusion of color and textured strokes brought to life with a palette knife. Beyond her artistic pursuits, Sky is a registered holistic nutritionist, personal trainer, group fitness, yoga, and spin instructor, seamlessly integrating her diverse passions. An accomplished entrepreneur she views work and play as inseparable entities. Sky's art has graced exhibitions in Canada, Taiwan, South Korea, and The United States, with the upcoming Art Vancouver international art fair. As an artist, actress, and athlete, she draws inspiration from her physical experiences, travels, and spirituality, infusing her art with a unique and compelling perspective.
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Friday, 4:30 PM
Booth #613
Aatmaan, Devi
Art as Structural Inquiry
​Spring in Winter Gallery is a contemporary gallery grounded in research, critical inquiry, and art as a form of structural inquiry. Through collaborations with pseudonymous artists who choose to foreground the work itself, the gallery explores the larger social, cultural, political, economic, historical, and institutional forces that shape human experience. Spring in Winter is interested in shared human conditions, difficult questions, and in how art can make visible the structures and narratives we often take for granted. Joining us today is Devi Aatmaan, the Creative Director and Founder of the gallery, whose background in sociology, research, and long-term engagement across artistic and social contexts helped shape this vision
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Friday, 7:05 PM
Booth #304
Saturday, May 30
Dianingana, Jeryce
Understanding Congolese Mask
Born in Paris to Congolese parents, Jeryce Dianingana creates Afro-centric 3D art inspired by his heritage. He aims to amplify African cultural diversity through his work in the gaming, fine art, and film industries.
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Saturday, 12:30PM
Booth #502​​
Izaza, Jorge
Gallery of Light
Mexican Canadian artist, Jorge Izaza, creates sculptural works that explore the relationship between form, material and light. Over the past four years, his practice has evolved from smaller hand-crafted pieces into larger gallery-scale sculptures and illuminated works. Working primarily with wood, he incorporates mixed media such as resin, epoxy, moss and glass to create depth and atmosphere. More recently, he has introduced hand caving and etched surfaces into select works, allowing light to interact more subtly and reveal layered textures. Committed to continual growth, his practice continues to evolve as he deepens his exploration of material, scale and illumination. ​
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Saturday, 1:10 PM
Booth # 301
Shecter, Lara
One Piece, Three Truths
Lara Shecter is a Vancouver-based artist working in acrylic and mixed media. Inspired by the Pacific Northwest, her work explores themes of solitude, connection, and the emotional resonance of landscape. Drawing from photography, digital processes, and painting, she creates layered pieces that balance abstraction and realism. Her art invites viewers to slow down, notice familiar places in new ways, and reflect on the quiet emotions held within landscape.
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Saturday, 12:50 PM
Booth #610
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Duncan, CCarla (TR TRADES)
How to Preserve & Reproduce Art for All Time
Carla Duncan is the President of TR Trades Reproduction, a Vancouver-based company specializing in fine art preservation, archival scanning, and high-end art reproduction. With over 50 years of industry expertise through TR Trades, Carla works with artists, collectors, galleries, and institutions across Canada to preserve and reproduce fragile and valuable artwork using advanced scanning and Giclée printing technology. Her team also transforms artwork into large-scale installations across materials including acrylic, fabric, wood, metal, glass, murals, and architectural applications.
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Saturday, 1:30 PM
Booth # 105
Sunday, May 31
Margherita, Sara
Feeling Through Art, and Art for All Time
Margh is a multidisciplinary artist based in Toronto, Canada. They're interested in the fluidity of shapes, space, and colour. Their practice centres feelings as both source and subject.
Guided by intuition, curiosity, and experimentation, Margh draws from everyday moments and emotional states, using art as a living language for self-expression.
Sunday, 12:00 PM
Booth # 106
Marello, Erica
The MELT Effect-how one immersive moment creates a culture of connection
Erica Marrello is a Vancouver-based multidisciplinary artist working across bold acrylic painting and immersive live art experiences. She is the creator of GET MELTED, a body-painting concept that began as an intimate photoshoot series and evolved into large-scale live performances, transforming the human form into a living canvas in real time.
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Her work explores identity, sensuality, power, vulnerability, and transformation, and has been presented at cultural events and exhibitions, including Dîner en Blanc, The Taboo Show, Gastown Sunday Set, Ambleside Music Festival, Monstercat Festival, and various smaller gallery and pop-up shows.
Through both canvas and body-based work, Erica creates art that is visceral and unapologetic, inviting viewers into moments of intensity, intimacy, and personal reinvention.
She is also the founder of EMM Gallery and EMM Creative, where she brings art into real-world environments through immersive, large-scale experiences that blend visual storytelling, performance, and event design.​
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Sunday, 12:25 PM
Booth # 606
Beldner, Ray
The Art of Borrowing: Collage, Art History, and Reinvention
Ray Beldner is a mixed media artist and for the past 25 years, has exhibited his art both nationally and internationally. His work can be found in many public and private collections including the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and the Federal Reserve Board, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Oakland Museum of California, the San Jose Museum of Art. The work is in several corporate collections as well: Saks Fifth Ave, Bain Capital, and McKesson Corporation.
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Born in San Francisco, Beldner received a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and an MFA from Mills College in Oakland, California. He has received numerous awards and fellowships including a California Arts Council Fellowship in New Genres, a Creative Work Fund Grant from the Haas Foundations, and a Potrero Nuevo environmental art grant. He has taught sculpture, interdisciplinary studies, and professional practices at the San Francisco Art Institute and the California College of the Arts, U.C. Berkeley, and University of California, Santa Cruz.
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His work has been reviewed in numerous publications including Art in America, Art on Paper, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, the Village Voice, the International Herald Tribune and the New York Times.
A lifelong advocate for artists, in 2015, he co-founded and is the Director of Startup Art Fair, a hotel art fair for independent artists that he produces annually in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston, and Chicago.
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Sunday, 12:55 PM
Booth # 411