A panel discussion with Shahrzad Amin and Raoul Olou

Let’s chat about selling artwork! For this workshop, we’ve invited two practicing artists to share some of their experiences selling works on various platforms, including Instagram, art fairs (in-person and online), and their own virtual shops. The moderated conversation will cover a range of practical topics, including:

• Maintaining an online presence
• Dealing with customers
• Assessing shipping strategies
• Paying yourself and reinvesting in your practice
• Managing work-life boundaries

This workshop will be hosted as a 70-minute Zoom meeting. The panel will run for 45 minutes with 15-25 minutes reserved at the end for questions and conversation with the audience.

This event is free and open to everyone, but registration is required. Register here. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Raoul Olou is a multidisciplinary artist based in Toronto. He creates work that references personal experiences, which reveal concepts of nationality, citizenship and race, through the depiction of everyday environments. Formally trained as filmmaker and currently practicing as a self-taught painter for over 10 years, Raoul has exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Mark Christopher Gallery, and the Run Gallery. He has received several grants and awards from the Canada Council for the Arts, Toronto Art Council, Ontario Arts Council, and received the Mayor’s Award and the Honorable Painting Award at the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair (2019 and 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, 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 and has been invited for artist residencies at the Museum of Contemporary Art x Akin Collective, Drake Devonshire, and Annandale Artist Residency.

Shahrzad Amin is an award-winning interdisciplinary artist who exhibits her works nationally and internationally. She creates socially engaging art pieces that invoke thoughts and encourage conversations about socio-cultural issues that surround us. Shahrzad makes original pieces that truly move people to feel intense emotions. Her interest in fundamental social issues such as democracy, equality, and migration has informed an art practice examining diasporic and socio-cultural subjectivities through the lenses of art practice, sensory ethnographic filmmaking, architectural design, gender, and language. Her works also highlight a social openness and necessity for global international connectivity by applying the historical eastern architectural figures such as arch bridges and combining cultural motifs as a metaphor for overcoming cultural distances. She received a BFA in Sculpture and Installation from Tehran University of Art (2010) and an MFA in the Interdisciplinary Master’s in Art, Media and Design from OCAD University (2020). Notable awards include Research-Creation Grant (Canada Council for the Arts), Exhibition Assistance Grant (Ontario Arts Council), Artscape Foundation Launchpad Bursary, and more.

Closed captioning and live transcription will be available through the built-in Zoom CC and Transcription features. ASL Interpretation can be arranged upon request. Please contact Hannah Keating at [email protected] to submit an interpretation request by October 26, 2022. All efforts will be made to fill a request, but if an Interpreter cannot be secured, we will let you know before the event takes place.

Is there anything else we can do to support your participation? Please reach out to Hannah at [email protected].

The RMG would like to acknowledge the RBC Foundation for their generous support of the Artist Professional Development Workshop Series.