On-Site Live Artist

Art Gems is thrilled to welcome Raoul Olou as our 2023 Live Artist, painitng a special piece for Art Gems.

About
Raoul Olou is a multidisciplinary artist based in Toronto. He creates work that references personal experiences, race, ontology, intuition, and anthropology inspired by quantum physics and speculative fiction. Formally trained filmmaker and a self-taught painter, Raoul has exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Mark Christopher Gallery, Patel Brown and the Run Gallery. He has received several grants and awards from the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, and Toronto Art Council, and received the Mayor’s Award and the Honourable Painting Award at the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair (2019, 2022). He has been commissioned on several large scale mural projects all over the Greater Toronto Area, working with Mural Routes, KJBit Collective, and through his own independently led projects including a recent City of Toronto commissioned mural. Raoul has also been commissioned on significant private works for the Drake Hotel, the Gladstone, Ode Toronto and the Sheraton Hotel. His work has been collected publicly and privately—by the City of Toronto, the Royal Bank of Canada, and the Wedge Collection. He has been invited for artist residencies at the Museum of Contemporary Art x Akin Collective, Drake Devonshire, and Annandale Artist Residency.