Mona Shahid is a Toronto based painter working primarily in encaustic. Though she has experience in diverse painting media, including fresco, she is most recognized for her encaustic work. She graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) in 1992, Vainella Fresco Laboratory in Prato, Italy (1996), and has a Master of Fine Art from Wayne State University in Detroit (2005). During her tenure at Wayne State University, she taught basic paining and drawing.
Mona has exhibited her work in numerous galleries in Canada and the United States, Including Edward Day Gallery in Toronto (1998-2006), Cambridge Galleries, Robert Kidd and Susanne Hilberry galleries, both in the Detroit area. Mona has also given several guest lectures including Wayne State University and the University of Toronto. Her current gallery affiliations include Susanne Hilberry Gallery in Ferndale, Michigan (Detroit), Gallery Project (Ann Arbor, Michigan), and Peter Robertson Gallery (Edmonton). Mona has work in collection across Canada and the United States, as well as some in Europe. She currently teaches encaustic painting at the Toronto School of Art.
Mona Shahid’s work is based primarily in portraiture, though animals and insects have been subjects as well. Images are drawn from literature, language and dreams. Distortion plays a large role in her portraits. Mona enjoys the physicality that encaustic painting enables. For her it is a rigorous combination of painting and sculpture, approximation and detail. Its unpredictability is an asset to Shahid.