SONIA ESMAILLOU

Sonia Esmaeillou is an emerging Toronto-based artist. Her paintings combine a foundation in classical realism with lively, expressive brushwork and an appetite for the unfinished: visible underdrawing, brisk gestural passages, and areas of raw texture sit beside finely rendered detail. Working mainly in oil and acrylic, she explores tension between control and feeling, inviting viewers to participate imaginatively in each work. Of Persian heritage and living in Canada, Sonia often weaves subtle Persian motifs and calligraphic gestures into contemporary compositions, using the canvas as a space for cultural memory and personal identity to meet.