What's getting noticed at Art Toronto 2024?

Art Toronto, Canada's largest art fair, kicked off Thursday. More than 100 galleries have made the pilgrimage to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre for the event's 25th anniversary, and the doors are open to the public through Sunday.

So what stands out this year? The morning after the opening night festivities, I got on the phone with some of the artists who were there and wandering the floor. As per usual, the evening was a social free-for-all, with artists and collectors crawling from booth to booth. But with so much to see, there's more to the scene than chatter and canapés. I wanted to know which works made a strong first impression, so here are just a few selections that stopped partygoers in their tracks.

Jennifer Carvalho. Annunciation with Architecture and Landscape I and II, 2023 (Franz Kaka)

The Toronto-based painter is showing this diptych at the Franz Kaka booth, and it got the attention of artists Laura Moore and Cindy Phenix. Both were wholly captivated by the paintings' texture. "It's true love when I look at those [paintings]," Moore tells CBC Arts. "It's relating back to history, but it also feels really contemporary at the same time." (Earlier this month, Carvalho spoke with CBC Arts about her practice, which mines the art of the Renaissance.)

Pardiss Amerian (Zalucky Contemporary)

Over at the Zalucky Contemporary booth, where Moore is showing work of her own, she was enchanted by a 2023 painting by Pardiss Amerian, I Promise You a Thousand Ruins. "I'm not a painter, so I'm always surprised when I pick a painting," says Moore. But as she was taking in this piece, she found herself lingering on the scraped surface of the canvas and imagining the processes involved in Amerian's artistry.

Toronto-based artist Stanzie Tooth was similarly awed by Amerian's paintings, but her favourite is a smaller piece from 2022, Bed of Balsam Fir. "Her surfaces are just really beautiful. And she really skirts this line between the representational and the abstraction in a way that I find really compelling," says Tooth. "You kind of feel like the paintings are coming to being as you are looking at them. You're always uncovering little moments in her work."

Winnie Truong. Pick Me, 2024 (Patel Brown, project space B14)

Blossoming in an open space, not far from the escalators at the entrance, this installation by Toronto's Winnie Truong is a can't-miss. Like a fantasy version of the CNE gardening competition, Truong has arranged row upon row of subtly anthropomorphic flowers — paper sculptures embellished with detailed drawings. Artist Rajni Perera told CBC Arts it was one of her favourite discoveries at the fair and praised Truong for her stunning execution. "I'm also a big hand-maker," says Perera. "I'm just happy to see work — heavily worked artwork — come back and return to fairs. It was just so minimal and so conceptual for so long that I'm happy to see it go this way."

Moore was similarly dazzled by the delicate construction of each leaf and petal and found herself poring over every detail, enjoying the "adorable, intimate feeling" of each specimen. "You just want to pick one," she says. "To make something so fleeting last a little bit longer, in paper, is kind of beautiful."

Manuel Mathieu (Galerie Hugues Charbonneau)

A towering mosaic by Manuel Mathieu faces the escalators from the Galerie Hugues Charbonneau booth. According to its label, it's 273.3 cm tall — but Rajni Perera was more curious about its heft. "I'm not sure how they got it in there," she half-jokes, estimating its weight at 200 kilograms. 

Perera says she was impressed by the expert construction of the mosaic, titled Satelitte 1. The colours and complexity of the composition also drew her eye, and she noted the work's interesting connection to another project of Mathieu's — five mosaic panels for a Montreal transit station.

In addition to the mosaic, some of Mathieu's paintings are appearing at the Galerie Hugues Charbonneau booth, which is where Sami Tsang was in their thrall. Tsang has a site-specific installation at Art Toronto (Bloodless Wounds From Poisonous Roots), which greets fair visitors at the top of the escalators. She's perhaps best known for her illustrative sculptures, and her ceramicist's eye is what drew her to Mathieu's work. The way he paints reminds her of glaze — "the way [he] blobs it onto the canvas."

Bubbles (Katzman Art Projects)

Yes, you read that right. The star of Trailer Park Boys has a series of cat paintings at the Katzman Art Projects booth, and he was even in attendance Thursday night. "I'm a huge Trailer Park Boys fan," says Perera, and a meet-and-greet with Bubbles was the high point of her evening. "If you're talking about rigorous, artistic, cultural product, I don't know about that part," she says, referring to kitties Luke Skywhiskers, Sgt. Meowenstein and Pablo Picatsso. But there's still plenty to love, she says, describing the work as honest, sweet and cute.

Marigold Santos. Regrounding, 2011 (Focus Exhibition)

The Calgary-based artist has work appearing at multiple booths, including Patel Brown and Norberg Hall, but this older painting earned a notice from Tsang and Tooth, who admired its fine detail and use of vibrant colour. The piece is featured in Art Toronto's Focus Exhibition, curated by Rhéanne Chartrand.

Rebecca Munce. Wrangling Stars, 2024 (McBride Contemporain)

Tsang also highlighted this piece by Rebecca Munce. Like the previous painting by Marigold Santos, the vibrancy of this scene drew Tsang's attention. "The colour was what captured me — to go deeper into looking," she says.

Mel Arsenault (Galerie Nicolas Robert)

Mel Arsenault is showing several items at Galerie Nicolas Robert, and Tsang was particularly impressed by her bold and inventive use of ceramic glazes. "She's really being playful with, like, melting them together," says Tsang, who loves the distortion of pattern and shape that Arsenault achieves.

Stephanie Temma Hier (Bradley Ertaskiran)

Speaking of ceramics, a pair of glazed stoneware jewel boxes by Stephanie Temma Hier were among Phenix's favourite things at the fair. Both vessels open to reveal tiny oil paintings, and are embellished with grotesqueries including crustacean claws and used bandages. That said, Phenix isn't the only one to find them irresistible. And that's partly because they remind us both of vintage Polly Pocket.

Geetha Thurairajah (Unit 17)

When Phenix goes to an art fair, it's paintings that usually get her attention. The artist is a painter herself, after all, and her eye is naturally drawn to colour, movement and texture. Geetha Thurairajah's work wowed her more than most, and Phenix was especially intrigued by the paintings' sense of movement.

Allie Gattor (Galerie Hugues Charbonneau)

Phenix also raved about an artist showing work alongside her own at the Galerie Hugues Charbonneau booth. There, Montreal's Allie Gattor has a series of drawings inspired by pregnancy. 

"I'm obsessed with the work of Allie Gattor," says Phenix. "Her sense of narration and the marks of her drawing are really strong," she says. "I was very happy to see it in person."

Élise Lafontaine (Pangée)

Over at the Pangée booth, Phenix was transfixed by the work of Élise Lafontaine, abstract paintings that reminded her of interdimensional portals — vibrant, magnetic images that dare her to dive through the canvas.

Lauren Crazybull. I've Always Been Away, 2023 (Macaulay + Co.)

"It's always nice when you see galleries bringing new works to the fair that you haven't been exposed to," says Tooth. And one of her top out-of-town discoveries was this triptych by Lauren Crazybull. The piece is appearing at the booth for Vancouver-based gallery Macaulay + Co., where its grand scale commands attention.

Graham Gillmore. You Will Change, 2024 (General Hardware)

Tooth says she's been admiring Graham Gillmore's paintings recently — and her favourite piece happens to be at the General Hardware booth, where Tooth is also represented. She's a fan of the "material quality" of his work, where written messages are hidden beneath washy layers of paint. "You kind of have to look deep into them to uncover these texts," she says. 

Kim Adams. Arrived (Formerly Known as Pig Mountain), 2024. (Hunt Gallery)

It's a Canadian landscape more than a decade in the making — a miniaturized mountain populated by humans, mermaids — and an alarming number of pigs. The installation, which is presented at Art Toronto by Hunt Gallery, was swarmed with onlookers Thursday night, and when Tooth got an eyeful, she was smitten. "Kim Adams is someone whose work I've known since high school, but you don't see his installations all the time," she says. "It's a little bit different than your regular 2D works that you see in the fairs, so that really stood out." (As it happens, Adams told CBC Arts the legend of Pig Mountain last week.) 

Art Toronto 2024 is at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre through Sunday, Oct. 27. www.arttoronto.ca.