Corynn Kokolakis

Corynn is a full-time artist and mom of three. Having given up painting for over a decade to raise her family, her reinvigorated practice strives to merge the disparate roles of mother and artist through the centring of child development and the labour of caregiving.

Corynn’s vivid renderings record intimate moments of transition and development, capturing children when they are most honest and without reserve. The figurative gesture is celebrated, and a sense of the individual emerges as each child moves autonomously through the world. With an emphasis on the caregiver’s point of view, these sensitive portrayals anchor the fleeting firmly in paint, giving weight to emotion and memory. The work is painted allaprima, welcoming the viewer to explore the material processes of oil paint. The result is a contrast that plays between the stillness of the image and the dynamic movements inherent in the physical act of painting.

Corynn earned her BFA in the Drawing and Painting program at OCADU, where she received the Akin Career Launcher Award. Her work has been featured on Breakfast Television, CP24, and She Does the City. She works out of the Akin Studios in Toronto and her work can be found in private collections in the UK, the US, France, Australia, and Canada.