Kayla Free is an award winning illustrator and artist based in Toronto, who found her love of drawing when she was a small bean. According to her late dad, at two years old she held a pencil for the first time like an artist and was enthralled with tearing pages out of magazines of images that peaked her curiosity. This method of finding source material for her playful, yet refined collage illustrations is still used today. She earned a Bachelor in Design, majoring in Illustration at OCAD University in 2015.
Meaning and play drive her art, through her work she aims to reconnect with our spiritual roots by inspiring our inner child. She presents her unique musings on Biblical texts in a whimsical, child-like style with the hope of engaging her audience to delve into the spiritual components of life. She composes her pieces from a doodle or from spontaneity, extracting colours and textures from magazines, posters, and scraps which is then either hand cut and pasted or scanned and assembled digitally. There is also a special place in her heart for her late father who passed away in 2023, he was both her creative mentor and ambassador of her faith.
Kayla’s work has earned her four international Art Magazine Awards with Creative Quarterly and Applied Arts. Her art has been exhibited in various mental health themed art shows, such as the “Life on the Line," a public art project and mental health awareness campaign on the Toronto TTC Subway in 2018 where she was also interviewed by the Globe and Mail, and most recently in the “Being Scene” 24th Annual Group Exhibition in 2025 with Workman Arts and can be purchased on the Workman Arts Juried Exhibition shop. Her work is also featured in the Collective City: TwentyTwenty Arts Documentary, an art curatorial collective presently active in its goals to raise awareness of Mental Health, homelessness and addiction.
Her named is pronounced “KaAy-LAH”
For inquires, please get in touch!
Email: kaylafree.art@gmail.com
Instagram: @kayla_free_illustration
Awards:
2025 Creative Quarterly 80, Winner
2015 Applied Arts, Student Award Winner
2015 Creative Quarterly 40, Runner-Up
2014 Creative Quarterly 36, Winner
Vending Events:
2023 Green Merchant Holiday Market, Toronto
2022 The Addams Family Christmas Bazaar: Back from the Dead, Toronto
2015 OCAD U Zine Fair, Toronto
2014 Canzine, Toronto
2014 OCAD U Zine Fair, Toronto
2013 Super Awesome Zine Fair, Toronto
Upcoming Solo Exhibitions:
September 2025
TPL Branch Art Exhibit, North York Central Library, Toronto
Group Exhibitions:
2025
All The Small Things, Northern Contemporary, Toronto
Being Scene Juried Exhibition, Toronto Media Arts Centre, Toronto
Love is in the Air, Gallery 1065, Toronto
Flora and Fauna, Northern Contemporary, Toronto
2024
Under 100 Holiday Art Show, Northern Contemporary, Toronto
2023
The Reverie Show: The Secret Handshake 11th Annual Summer Group Show, The Secret Handshake Gallery, Toronto
2018
Life on the Line: Launch Event & Art Exhibit, NO Foundation, Toronto
Art for Charity T.O. Presents: Coexisting with Wild Life, Anarres Natural Health Apothecary, Toronto
Under 100, Northern Contemporary, Toronto
Empurity, Electric Perfume, Toronto
2017
Fix Up Look Sharp, Northern Contemporary, Toronto
Never Real & Always True, Northern Contemporary, Toronto
Salon of Inclusiveness Holiday Show & Sale, Black Cat - Artspace, Toronto
2016
One Love Jam: Pop Up Art Show, Trinity Bellwood’s Park, Toronto
Group Exhibitions Continued:
2015
TA12 2015, Tota Lounge, Toronto
OCAD University's 100th Graduation Exhibition, OCAD University, Toronto
RAW: Natural Born Artists: BOLD, Virgin Mobile Mod Club, Toronto
2014
Trap-ped After Twelve, The Rockpile East, Toronto
OCADU's Illustrative Drawing and Painting Class Exhibition, Artscape Youngeplace, Toronto
2013
The Beaver Show, Atomic Toybot Gallery, Toronto
Retrospective, OCAD University, Toronto
St. Patrick’s Eve - Art Show with Bands and Drinks, Velvet Underground, Toronto
2012
Emerging Artist Series, Smiling Buddha Bar, Toronto
Retrospective, OCAD University, Toronto
Fordmania! Atomic Toybot Gallery, Toronto