About Toni Hamel

Photo by Tom Ridout

Download Curriculum Vitae

Born (1961) in Italy. Lives and works in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

Toni Hamel describes her work as “an illustrated commentary on human frailties“. Rooted in story-telling, her art practice draws from personal experiences and outward observations to create thematic bodies of work that reflect on and interpret the psychological unease of this anthropocentric age. Virtues and vices, the holy and the profane, the good and the bad all share equal weight in her work and supply an infinite source of material for her investigations. Pointing to historical references, popular culture and our current conceptual standing, Hamel’s satirical narratives ultimately seem to question our behaviour while alerting us about the repercussions of our current thinking models.

Hamel is the recipient of three Ontario Arts Council grants (2011, 2012, 2014). Her work has been exhibited in public and commercial galleries in Canada and abroad, and is included in the art collections of J. J. Abrams, Whoopi Goldberg, the Government of Ontario, the Omer DeSerres Corporation, the Robert McLaughlin Gallery and many other private collections around the world.

Hamel’s work is regularly featured in Arts & Culture publications including Colossal (March 7, 2023 – September 16, 2020)My Modern Met (April 24, 2022), CBC-Arts (Canada, short-doc; Season 3/Episode 20, 2018), Hi-Fructose (September 16, 2017 / August 8, 2015), Lowdown (Germany, Issue #98, 2018; print and online); Courrier International (France, October 2017; print), Colossal and BOOOOOOOM (digital), Frankie (Australia, October 2018; print), The Affair (Taiwan, July 2018; print), Efflorescence Culturelle (France, September 2016), Mud Season Review (USA, Issue #28; print – online see art and interview) and many other print and digital outlets.

Hamel holds a BFA from the Accademia di Belle Arti of Lecce (Italy, 1983), a post-graduate Certificate in Computer Graphics from Sheridan College (Canada, 1991), the Golden Key National Honour Society Award from the University of Toronto (Specialist Programme in Psychology, 1997). She is the recipient of the Lubiam Prize (Milan, 1983) and many other awards.