Roda Medhat

Roda Medhat is a Kurdish-born artist based in Toronto, Canada working across sculpture, installation, public art, and moving image. His practice rebuilds cultural source material, including textiles, diagrams, archived objects, pop culture, and everyday forms, into structures made from light, metal, acrylic, and air. He is interested in the conditions in which the work can exist, power, pressure, support, access, and maintenance, and how those conditions shape what the work becomes.

His work has been supported by the Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, and Partners In Art. In 2023, he was the 401 Richmond Career Launcher Prize recipient, and in 2024 he received the CIBC C2 Art Prize.

Roda holds a BFA from OCAD University. Film production at FAMU Film and Television School of Prague. MFA from the University of Guelph.

Solo Exhibition

• 2026 - Things I Can Fold, Deflate and Break. Art Gallery of Burlington
• 2024/2025 Serdem - CIBC Square; Toronto, Canada.
  

Selected Group Exhibitions

• 2025 - From Cloth To Code. Textile Museum of Canada. Toronto
• 2025 - Fuzzy Thinking. Art Gallery of Guelph. 
• 2025 - CAFKA; Contemporary Art Forum of Kitchener + Area . Kitchener.
• 2025 - The Shape I’m In. All Ours Studio & Art Vessel. Toronto
• 2025 - Impart. Centre3. Hamilton
• 2025 - REVIVE. Design TO. HarbourFront Centre. Toronto
• 2025 - From Electrical Fire Spirits May Be Kindled. Gallery 272. Toronto
  
• 2024 - Fibreworks; Next In Fibre. Cambridge Art Gallery. Cambridge
• 2023 -  In-Between, RA:X Reel Asian. Toronto
• 2023 -  Killim: Inflatable, Nocturne. Halifax
• 2023 -  Killim: Inflatable, Nuit Blanche.Toronto
• 2022 - Socotra Tree, Small Arms Inspection Building. Mississauga
• 2022 - FARSH, Nuit Blanche. Toronto

Public Art

• Kilim, Overlea Boulevard, City of Toronto - Installation 2028
• From The Loom, Warden Station, Toronto Transit Commission - Installation 2027
• FARSH 2, Erin Mills CC. Mississauga - 2023/2025 - Installed
• Sixteen Mile Creek, Oakville Ontario, - Shortlisted 2024
• Sumac Groves, Main Street Unionville - Shortlisted 2024
• 103A Ave Pedway Edmonton Alberta - Shortlisted 2024 

Grants & Awards

• CIBC C2 Art Prize 2024
• Canada Council For The Arts. Explore and Create, Concept to Realization 2024
• 401 Richmond Career Launcher Prize 2024
• Canada Council For The Arts. Arts Across Canada Travel 2023
• Ontario Arts Council. Visual Artists Creation Projects 2023
• Ontario Arts Council. Market Development Travel Grant 2023
• Burlington Waterfront Sculpture Trail Audience Choice Award 2023

Artist Residency

• 2026 - Capsule Studios Residency
• 2023/2025 - Sari-Sari Xchange, McMaster-York University-Reel Asian.
• 2023 - CreateSpace, STEPS Public Art, Toronto.
  
• 2023 - New Location, Digital Artist Residency.

Publications & Press

• 2026 - Inflatable cars and sizzling neon: welcome to the material world of Roda Medhat, CBC, web. Link
• 2025 - 7 Asian Designers at DesignTO, Pale Blue Magazine, web. Link
• 2025 - CBC Arts, DesignTO, Web. Link
• 2024 - Fieldnotes: STEPS, Web. Link
• 2023 - Reel Asian goes beyond the screen, Foyer, Web. Link
• 2023 - CBC Arts Newsletter, web. Link
• 2023 - All the must-sees at Halifax's Nocturne 2023, CBC, web. Link
• 2023 - Nuit Blanche in Toronto 2023: Tight Spaces, Toronto Scoop, Web. Link
  
• 2023 - Your 2023 Guide to Nuit Blanche, PEGGY, Web. Link
• 2023 - ANNOUNCING THE 2023 RECIPIENT OF THE 401 CAREER LAUNCHER PRIZE: RODA MEDHAT, 401 Richmond, Web.
  
• 2022 - REEL Asian Film Festival, Reel Asian Programme Guide, Toronto.
• 2022 - Nuit Blanche 2022 fills ‘The Space Between Us’ with art,  The Toronto Star, Web/Print, Canada. Link
  
• 2022 -What to see at Toronto’s Nuit Blanche, The Globe and Mail, Web, Canada. Link
  
• 2022 - RAD Magazine photographer, Web/Print, Toronto.
• 2020 - Front cover for Pinstriped Magazine Issue 14; Web/Print, Los Angeles.
• 2017 - Turmoil, International Art Collaboration Catalogue; Osaka, Japan
• 2017 -  41 Artist to watch from the OCADU graduate exhibition, BlogTO, Toronto. 

Artist Talks  & Educator

• 2025 - Talking Textiles Grant Heaps, Roda Medhat, and Jagdeep Raina, Art Gallery of Guelph.
• 2025 - Lunch and Learn, Varley Art Gallery.
• 2024 - CIBC Square Artist Talk
• 2024 - STEPS Public Art Forum, Educator
• 2023-2025 - Educator at Youth Public Art Engagement program, Recreate Place, Toronto.
• 2023 - Artist Talk: Creating an appetite for Kurdish Art: Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax.
• 2022 - Summer Student Program: OCAD University, Toronto.
• 2021 - Lives of Creatives: OCAD U Alumni Panel, Toronto.
• 2021 - Emerging Creatives Panel: ArtWorksTO, Toronto.

Education

• 2026 - Masters of Fine Arts, University of Guelph; Guelph, Ontario.
• 2023 - Shahrzad Arshadi's Writers Workshop, SoulPepper Theatre, Toronto.
• 2022 - Reel Asian Unsung Voices Program;  Canada.
• 2021 - Certificate in Continuing Studies; OCAD University; Toronto.
• 2017 - Bachelor of Fine Arts: Integrated Media, OCAD University; Toronto.
• 2016 - Film Production, FAMU Film and Television School; Prague.

Film Screenings

• 2023 - Dutar, Sinema Akhir Tahun, Surakarta, Indonesia.
  
• 2023 - Dutar, MINIKINO, Bali, Indonesia.
• 2023 - Dutar, Toronto Multicultural Film Festival, Scarborough.
  
• 2023 - Dutar, Kurdish Indepedent International Film Festival, Online.
• 2022 - Dutar, Reel Asian Film Festival, Toronto.
• 2014 - Step of Two, York Region Film Festival, Toronto.
• 2014 - Step of Two, Augmented Cinema Film Festival, Toronto.

Film Credits

• 2024 - Cinematographer and Editor, Mould, Toronto.
  
• 2022 - Director, Writer and Cinematographer, Dutar,  Toronto.
• 2017 - Cinematographer, Hotel Lobby Oyster, Toronto.
• 2016 - First AC, Juneteenth,, Prague.
• 2016 - Assistant Camera, Babuska, Prague.
• 2016  - Sound Recordist, Carrots, Prague.
  
• 2016 - Sound Recordist, FAMU production, Prague.
• 2016 - Sound Recordist, FAMU production, Prague.
• 2016 - Editor/Colour grading, BBC, Reading, UK.
• 2014 - Director, Dance of Two, Toronto.