Meet the Artists: Steve Kean and Mio Reynolds

By: Isabella Nicastro, Curation and Artist Liaison at Partial

As part of our ongoing commitment to highlight the incredible talent within the Partial community and from coast-to-coast, Partial’s second 2026 homepage banner spotlight features artists Mio Reynolds and Steve Kean.

Steve Kean is a Canadian photographer who describes himself as both a disabled photographer and a photographer with a disability. To Steve, these titles are not interchangeable; he identifies as a disabled photographer as he lives and creates art in a world that is not designed to accommodate him and his wheelchair, stating that “people are more comfortable with ‘artist with a disability’. The later term he identifies with more closely as it acknowledges Kean as a person first, framing his disability a part of him rather than the world around him.

Originally from Sudbury, Ontario, Steve has been living and working in Toronto for the over 25 years. As Kean’s disability made it difficult for him to draw or paint, he turned to photography while in high school where he was failing art class in order to satisfy his burning need to create art. Primarily self-taught, Steve has made tens-of-thousands of images over more than thirty years attempting to master his craft. He received the BEST IN PHOTOGRAPHY AND DIGITAL MEDIA award at the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair in 2017 and has exhibited his work at several notable Toronto galleries such as Abozzo Gallery and Tangled Art Gallery.

Largely inspired by nature, Kean’s images often conjure quick motion and swift movement through distorted and blurred forms. His photography animates these landscapes in a way that allows viewers to fully immerse themselves into the environments he explores.

Mio Reynolds is a Japanese-Canadian illustrator and painter born and raised in Toronto. Reynolds graduated from OCAD University in 2024. Having a passion for art at a young age, Reynolds explores art-making through various mediums such as watercolour, photography, digital illustration, animation, comic-making, and painting.

Using her own candid photography as inspiration, Reynold’s oil and acrylic paintings explore the relationship between the individual and their environment. She strives to reveal how these quiet moments of simply existing reflect the complexity of being alone. These portraits convey the tension between solitude and connectedness to the surrounding environment, and how it influences individual identity.

When did you start making art, and why?

When I was 3, according to my father. He claims I drew a baby and said it was me, and my parents have supported my art-making ever since.