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, signature collage pieces is still used today. She completed her Bachelor in Design, major in Illustration at OCAD University in 2015. 

Kayla’s work has earned her six 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. Most recently, her original piece was selected in the “Being Scene, 24th Annual Group Exhibition” with Workman Arts and can be purchased on the Workman Arts Juried Exhibition shop. Her art 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 “KAy-LAH”

For inquires, please get in touch!
Email: kaylafree.art@gmail.com
Instagram: @kayla_free_illustration

Awards: 
2025 3x3 International Illustration Annual No.22, Merit Winner
2025 Creative Quarterly 80, Winner
2025 Creative Quarterly 80, Runner-Up
2015 Applied Arts Magazine, 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:
August 2025, Open Studio series, Toronto Media Arts Centre, Toronto
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

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