RAID

🖼️ GLIMMERS
2025-12-22 00:00 - 2026-01-29 23:59 (America/Toronto) | RAID Gallery & Cafe, 1720 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M68 1B3, Canada
About the Exhibition
Glimmers is an intimate collection of pen-and-ink illustrations by award-winning artist Ramón Pérez, celebrating the quiet, luminous moments that make up a life. Through a series of elegantly rendered feminine vignettes — reading on a sun-splashed beach, enjoying a cup of up of tea on a winter day, or simply enjoying a glass of wine — Pérez distills the beauty found in pause, presence, and personal ritual.
Executed with his signature line work and a sensitivity to gesture and mood, these drawings capture not grand narratives but the subtle sparks of everyday existence — the fleeting, tender instants that reveal who we are when the world falls away. Glimmers invites viewers to slow down, look closer, and find resonance in the small, soft, universal rhythms of being.
About the Artist
Ramón K Peréz is an award winning cartoonist and illustrator whose career spans nearly three decades. Known for his dynamic storytelling and expressive cartooning, his work ranges from independent passion projects to major Marvel and DC Comics titles.
His Eisner and Harvey Award-winning adaptation of Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand cemented his reputation as a master of visual narrative.
ADMISSION
Access to the RAID Gallery & Cafe is FREE. The space is open from 9am to 4pm weekly, and 10am to 5pm on weekends.

🖼️ EVERYDAY
2025-12-22 00:00 - 2026-01-29 23:59 | RAID Gallery & Cafe, 1720 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M68 1B3, Canada
About the Exhibition
Using bright palettes and clean shapes, Cristy captures ordinary moments with a mix of playfulness and honesty. Her illustrations celebrate the charm of the ordinary and the beauty in things often overlooked — a reminder that simplicity can be full of character, and that the everyday can be surprisingly funny.
About the Artist
Cristy Q is a Toronto-based illustrator who finds humour in the everyday. Her work transforms simple subjects — people, food, hands, and the small objects that fill daily life — into bold, colourful scenes that feel both familiar and a little absurd.
exhibit launch
Join us at RAID Studio on March 26th from 7:00 PM to 11:30 00 PM for Everyday, an exhibition by Toronto-based illustrator Cristy Q. Tickets available on EVENTBRITE
ADMISSION
Access to the RAID Gallery & Cafe is FREE. The space is open from 9am to 4pm weekly, and 10am to 5pm on weekends.

🖼️ RAINBOW CIRCLE
2026-01-29 00:00 - 2026-03-06 23:59 | RAID Gallery & Cafe, 1720 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M68 1B3, Canada
About the Exhibition
RAINBOW CIRCLE is an augmented reality art experience blending illustration, animation, and technology to bring excerpts from the forthcoming comic into physical space. Set in a not-so-distant future overrun by technology, the story follows Rayna, a 13-year-old misfit who loves music and exploration but struggles within a rigid, point-based social system. After falling through a mysterious portal, Rayna journeys across multiple dimensions in a quest for self-discovery and reconnection with nature. Through interactive engagement, Rainbow Circle explores themes of earth stewardship, indigenous wisdom, and empowerment, inviting viewers to consider how imagination and connection can challenge systems of control..
About the Artist
CYNTHIA UNDYANTARA is a Toronto-based artist, storyteller, somatic healing practitioner, and creative guide devoted to reconnecting people with their inner power. She began her career in Toronto’s animation industry before leaving traditional production environments to pursue a more expansive creative practice. Since then, she has founded a community art space, traveled extensively, and studied diverse healing modalities across cultures. She is also the founder of Electric Sunshine Co., an art and wellness company offering workshops that support personal and collective transformation through creativity.
ADMISSION
Access to the RAID Gallery & Cafe is FREE. The space is open from 9am to 4pm weekly, and 10am to 5pm on weekends.

🎪 FAN EXPO VANCOUVER 2026
2026-02-14 00:00 - 2026-02-16 23:59 | Vancouver Convention Centre, 1055 Canada Place, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6C0C3, Canada
RAID is heading out west for FAN EXPO VANCOUVER, which runs from Saturday, February 14th – Monday the 16th at the Vancouver Convention Centre. Our crew will be located at P33-34, and P14 in Artist Alley.
Creators present are: Dax Gordine, Ramón K Pérez, and Becka Kinzie.
SCHEDULED PANELS & EVENTS:
SAT, FEB 14, 11:45 am | THEATRE 5 • BLITZ MAGAZINE AND THE NEW INDIE FRONTIER
Independent comics are booming like they haven’t since the halcyon days of the 1980s underground—welcome back to the Wild West. BLITZ sits at the heart of this resurgence, spotlighting fearless creators, international voices, and boundary-pushing work. Join BLITZ founder and award-winning artist Ramón Pérez, alongside creators Emilia Strilchuk, Dax Gordine, and Shawn Daley, as they carve their own paths and dig into the modern indie publishing landscape — what’s fuelling this creative explosion, and how a new generation is keeping the DIY spirit loud, vital, and thriving.

Emilia Strilchuk

Dax Gordine

Ramón Pérez

Shawn Daley

Hosted by Stephanie Gerk
MON, FEB 16, 12:45 pm | THEATRE 5 • SKETCH DUEL: MAX DUNBAR VS RAMÓN PÉREZ
Friendly, high-energy art battles where professional comic artists draw head-to-head, often with audience themes, showcasing speed and creativity, creating unique art for fans. Lucky audience members have a chance to win the art created on stage so make sure to arrive early!

Max Dunbar

Ramón Pérez

Hosted by Anthony Ruttgaizer

🖼️ EVERYDAY
2026-03-15 00:00 - 2026-05-31 23:59 | RAID Gallery & Cafe, 1720 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M68 1B3, Canada
About the Exhibition
Using bright palettes and clean shapes, Cristy captures ordinary moments with a mix of playfulness and honesty. Her illustrations celebrate the charm of the ordinary and the beauty in things often overlooked — a reminder that simplicity can be full of character, and that the everyday can be surprisingly funny.

About the Artist
Cristy Q is a Toronto-based illustrator who finds humour in the everyday. Her work transforms simple subjects — people, food, hands, and the small objects that fill daily life — into bold, colourful scenes that feel both familiar and a little absurd.

🎪 TAAFI 2026
2026-04-08 00:00 - 2026-04-12 23:59 | Tiff Lightbox, 350 King St W, Toronto, Ontario, M5V 3X5, Canada
The Toronto Animation Arts Festival International, or TAAFI, is the animation festival that welcomes a massive audience of talented professionals, students, studios and enthusiasts, year after year. It is a completely volunteer-run non-profit organization that is crazy passionate about cartoons and the people who make them!
This year, TAAFI has reorganized their many events into a singular multi-day festival: “TAAFI 2026: The Industry We Want To Work In” and emphasizes collaboration and community, addressing shared challenges and exploring ways to shape a more inclusive, sustainable, and creative future.
Taking place from Wednesday, April 8th to Sunday, April 12th, the festival will be filled with guest speakers from across the industry including Aaron Blaise (former Disney Animation Supervisor), Phil Rynda (Head of Original Animation, Pokemon), and John Aoshima (Director, Ultraman: Rising) and unique panels highlighting a number of topics related to animation/VFX and more at our Industry Conference, as well as our annual Film Festival and other special feature presentations, where films submitted from across the world and right here in Canada are celebrated on the big screen.
TAAFI 2026 is the perfect opportunity for professionals, students, hobbyists, or just about anyone wanting to catch up on the latest trends and industry talks, network with fellow creatives in the field, or kick back and have a great time at one of our various screenings!
Tickets are available now at https://aftontickets.com/taafi. We hope to see you there! Be sure to follow @thetaafi on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), and subscribe to their newsletter for all the latest updates.
TAAFI 2026. One Epic Event. Film. Conference. Careers. Are You Ready?

💬 Be Yourself… Oh, Not Like That!
2026-05-21 18:30 - 21:30
Emilia Strilchuk on the storytelling of the self: a conversation with Stephanie Cooke.

As TCAF approaches, RAID welcomes Canadian-Ukrainian artist Emilis Strilchuk for a conversation on self-narrative and the challenge of telling your own story: how do you write about yourself?

Together, we’ll explore this question through her graphic memoir, Be Yourself…Oh, Not Like That, a deeply personal work tracing her journey from childhood to adulthood through the lens of a late autism diagnosis.

EVENT details

This is a ticketed event, with tickets available through Eventbrite.

Doors open at 6:30 PM.Enjoy a complimentary drink with your ticket.Extra snacks and drinks will be available for purchase on site.

Drinks provided by Barebones Bartending.

💬 Inside Vivisect
2026-05-29 19:00 - 21:00
A Conversation with Vivi Partridge and Mollie Cronin

Join us on May 29th for the launch of Vivisect, by Vivi Partridge, published by Inservice Comics—a raw and rambunctious diary comic about a big breakup, making your first graphic novel, therapy, mental health, and befriending characters from manga, by the author of Quiet Crossings (Conundrum Press).

Vivi will guide us through their artistic process in conversation with Mollie Cronin, author and artist of Future Me is Fat (Conundrum Press).

We’ll have drinks, snacks (of course), and music. The event starts at 7 PM. After the conversation, there will be a Q&A, followed by time to mingle and celebrate yet another release from one of the most distinctive emerging voices in Canadian comics.

EVENT details

This is a ticketed event, with tickets available through Eventbrite.

Doors open at 6:30 PM.Extra snacks and drinks will be available for purchase on site.

The ticket includes one copy of Vivisect. The author will be signing books at the event.

Drinks provided by Barebones Bartending.

🖼️ Riding West with Zafron in My Blood
2026-06-04 00:00 - 2026-08-04 23:59 | RAID Gallery & Cafe, 1720 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M68 1B3, Canada
About the Exhibition
Born in the aftermath of Iran’s Women, Life, Freedom movement, this series imagines a post-apocalyptic Iran in which women have finally broken free. Yet their liberation comes at a cost: their skin stripped away, their faces erased, leaving behind haunting silhouettes that embody both survival and defiance. Around them, animals roam unshackled, moving alongside the women in a shared rhythm of resistance, dance, and renewal.
At the heart of the work is sorority: no woman is left behind. Together they rise, bound by resilience, courage, and an unyielding longing for a better future. The series exists as both elegy and celebration — a tribute to Iranian womanhood, endurance, and the enduring force of sisterhood.
Rendered in oil on large-scale canvas, the works evoke power, presence, and emotional intensity. As an Iranian woman, I have long been inspired by the profound solidarity of women in Iran: how they stand together, fight together, and imagine freedom together. This series is dedicated to that strength — to women who remain unbroken, who reclaim their freedom, and who dance toward a new world.
About the Artist
Sarvi Ghadim is an artist raised in Montréal but forever shaped by Tehran, carrying with her the beauty, contradictions, and resilience of Iran. Her work is deeply informed by the solidarity she witnessed among Iranian women — women who, even under oppression, protected one another and fought side by side with extraordinary strength. Refusing to reduce their stories to suffering alone, Ghadim instead celebrates their brilliance, defiance, and unwavering resilience.
LAUNCH EVENT
Join us on June 6, 2026, at RAID Gallery for the opening of Riding West with Zafron in My Blood. This is a ticketed event, with tickets available through Eventbrite.

🚀 Riding West with Zafron in My Blood: Exhibit Launch
2026-06-06 20:00 - 23:30
EXHIBITION LAUNCH
Join us on June 6, 2026, at RAID Gallery for the opening of Riding West with Zafron in My Blood, a powerful new exhibition by Sarvi Ghadim.
Spend the evening immersed in Ghadim’s evocative large-scale works and meet the artist in person as we celebrate the launch of this striking new body of work.
This is a ticketed event, with tickets available through Eventbrite.
About the Exhibition
Born in the aftermath of Iran’s Women, Life, Freedom movement, this series imagines a post-apocalyptic Iran in which women have finally broken free. Yet their liberation comes at a cost: their skin stripped away, their faces erased, leaving behind haunting silhouettes that embody both survival and defiance. Around them, animals roam unshackled, moving alongside the women in a shared rhythm of resistance, dance, and renewal.
At the heart of the work is sorority: no woman is left behind. Together they rise, bound by resilience, courage, and an unyielding longing for a better future. The series exists as both elegy and celebration — a tribute to Iranian womanhood, endurance, and the enduring force of sisterhood.
Rendered in oil on large-scale canvas, the works evoke power, presence, and emotional intensity. As an Iranian woman, I have long been inspired by the profound solidarity of women in Iran: how they stand together, fight together, and imagine freedom together. This series is dedicated to that strength — to women who remain unbroken, who reclaim their freedom, and who dance toward a new world..
