New Perspectives, A Summer Workshop Series at OCAD University

PENCIL FOR YOUR NON-DOMINANT HAND, artist multiple, Van Maltese. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Registration Open: Summer Workshops and Artist talk with Van Maltese

OCAD University, Toronto

This July, join OCAD University’s THIRDSPACE Summer Artist and Mentor-in-Residence Van Maltese for a series of hands-on, perception-warping workshops that invite you to draw differently, look curiously, and think playfully.

All workshops and the artist talk are open to all ages and experience levels.

Programming:

Workshop 1: Drawing with Your Non-Dominant Hand
July 7 and 22, 2025 | 5:30pm – 8:30pm
Register here

Shake up your routine in this unconventional drawing session with Van Maltese. You’ll alternate between your dominant and non-dominant hands for quick gesture sketches and extended studies—focusing on process, discovery, and breaking away from habit.

Each participant will receive PENCIL FOR YOUR NON-DOMINANT HAND, a limited-edition artist multiple published by Van Maltese through Slow Editions (Toronto).

CLUES, artist book, 2018, Van Maltese. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Workshop 2: Eye Scream
July 14, 2025 | 6:00pm – 9:00pm
Register here

What do you see in the cracks in the pavement?

Van Maltese will guide you through a walk in and workshop in the park to explore pareidolia—the brain’s tendency to find familiar forms in random patterns, like faces in clouds or animals in tree bark. The evening ends with a group discussion with a scoop of gelato from Futura Gelato, reflecting on the links between perception, desire, and sensory reward.

Each participant will receive a copy of CLUES, Van Maltese’s limited-edition artist book (2018, Edition of 90).

Artist Talk with Van Maltese
July 12, 2025 | 5:30pm
Free
Register here

Join Van Maltese as they share insights from their two-month artist and mentorship residency at OCAD University. They will speak about their most recent research, studio explorations, the ideas shaping their evolving body of work, and their experience as the THIRDSPACE Summer Artist & Mentor-in-Residence. Known for using illusion, trickery, and associative play, Van’s practice challenges how we see, hear, and make meaning from our surroundings.

Van Maltese. Photo by Brittany Carmichael

About the THIRDSPACE Summer Artist & Mentor-in-Residence

Van Maltese is an interdisciplinary artist whose work employs trickery, illusion, and associative play to deconstruct the experience of perception. Fascinated by pattern recognition, brain plasticity, and the fluidity of sight and sound, Maltese explores how perceptual conflicts can reshape thinking. Based in Tkaronto/Toronto, Maltese is an OCAD University alum (Class of 2010) and has received major recognitions, including the 2012 RBC Canadian Painting Competition national prize and the 2018 Glenfiddich Artist-in-Residence Canadian prize. Most recently, they served as the 2023 International Randall Chair in Painting at the School of Art and Design at Alfred University.

This summer, they are bringing their expertise, curiosity, and mentorship to THIRDSPACE, guiding a group of emerging artists through an immersive one-month residency and mentorship program, and offering these public workshops and artist talk.

Got questions? Get in touch with us!
Meichen Waxer, Program Development Specialist: mwaxer@ocadu.ca