About:
Isabella Nicastro is a contemporary Canadian artist and curator based in Toronto, Ontario. She is a recent Bachelor of Fine Arts graduate of OCAD University.
Working primarily in painting, photography, curation, and text, her practice places emphasis on concepts of lived experience, perception of self, familial relations, ancestral heritage, spirituality, and everyday rituals associated with the home environment. She often creates depictions of traditional still-life and portraiture through a contemporary lens, utilizing close-cropped and selectively curated compositions. A strong interplay of light and shadow is weaved throughout, and the quiet, reflective nature of her work lends itself to the deep sense of introspection found at the core of her practice.
Her work has been featured in several exhibitions and private collections locally in Toronto, as well as internationally in London, England.
Isabella Nicastro
b. 2002, Toronto, ON.
Education:
2025 OCAD University: Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) with Distinction, Major in Drawing and Painting, Minor in Creative Writing, Toronto, ON.
2024 University of the Arts London- Camberwell College of Arts: BA (Hons) Painting, Study Abroad, London, EN.
CV
Upcoming Exhibitions:
2025 Queen Mother Cafe, Toronto, ON.
Select Group Exhibitions:
2025 My Mother's Tongue, Boxcar Social, Toronto, ON.
2025 GradEx 110, OCAD University, Toronto, ON.
2025 Stories We Tell, Stackt Market, Toronto, ON.
2025 Art of Hope (permanent collection), UHN West Park Healthcare Centre, Etobicoke, ON.
2025 The House and the Home, Old Victoria College at the University of Toronto, Toronto, ON.
2025 Caves to Creatures, Ada Slaight Gallery, Toronto, ON.
2024 New Vistas: Echoes of Home, Etobicoke Civic Centre Art Gallery, Etobicoke, ON.
2024 Under 100, Northern Contemporary Gallery, Toronto, ON.
2024 Expressions, Art Space Connect Gallery, Etobicoke, ON.
2024 Intersections: Threads of Tradition and Identity, Cloverdale Common, Etobicoke, ON.
2024 Land, Sea, and Sky, collaborative virtual exhibition with OCAD University and international partner institutions, Toronto, ON.
2024 Homebound (co-curator), collaborative virtual exhibition with OCAD University and international partner institutions, Toronto, ON.
2024 Milk and Honey, Brixton Tate Library, London, EN.
2024 Coalesce, Copeland Gallery, London, EN.
2019 Visual Arts Exhibition, J.E.H MacDonald House, Thornhill, ON.
Publications/Press:
2025 Love Letters Home, Poel Collective, Montreal, QC.
2025 OCAD U DRPT GradEx110 Catalogue, OCAD University, Toronto, ON.
2025 Echoes of Home: Reverberations, Toronto, ON.
2025 Stories We Tell, International Collaborative Zine, Toronto, ON.
2024 Expressions, Exhibition Catalogue, Artusiasm, Toronto, ON.
2024 Milk and Honey, Exhibition Zine, Lambeth Library Readers and Writers Festival, London, EN.
2022-2023 Journal of Visual and Critical Studies, JVCS OCAD University, Toronto, ON.
Grants and Awards:
2025 Career Launcher Fund, RBC CEAD Centre, Toronto, ON.
2025 Elliot Joel Bursary, Toronto, ON.
2024 Frances Lea Ziegler Memorial Scholarship, Toronto, ON.
2024 OCAD University CEAD Career Launcher Award with Partial Gallery, Toronto, ON.
2023 Kendra Jaal McCleskey Memorial Bursary, Toronto, ON.
2023 St George's Society of Toronto Bursary in Art and Design, Toronto, ON.
2021 OCAD University TSA Bursary, Toronto, ON.
Residencies/ Forums:
2025 (upcoming) Art Intensive Berlin, All About Curating Collective, Berlin, Germany.
2025 CreateSpace Public Art Forum, STEPS Public Art, Virtual.
Conferences:
2025 In Conversation With: June Clark (Introduction), Encounters With Artists Collective, OCAD University, Toronto, ON.
2025 In Conversation With: Rajni Perera (Interview Panel) Encounters With Artists Collective, OCAD University, Toronto, ON.
2023 Life and Relationships in the Domestic Space, Professional Practice Course, OCAD University, Toronto, ON.
Juror Experience:
2024 Homebound, virtual international exhibition, OCAD University.
2023-2024 APEX Art International Open Call For Exhibitions, New York City, USA.
Relevant Experience:
Curation and Artist Liaison, Partial Gallery, Toronto, ON.
Senior Program Coordinator (2025) and Visual Arts Counsellor (2024), Camp Byng, Robert's Creek, BC.
Visual Arts Instructor, The Creative Child, Toronto, ON.
Painter (internship), M Polo Designs, Sunnybrook Hospital public installation, Toronto, ON.
Team Lead, DRPT Catalogue Committee, OCAD University, Toronto, ON.
Research and Panel Interviewer, Encounters With Artists Collective, Toronto, ON.
Community Manager (internship), helloart, Toronto, ON.
Editor, Journal of Visual and Critical Studies, Toronto, ON.