01 — About

Counter-culture, made by hand.

Toly A.K. is the working name of Apostoly Peter Kouroumalis, a Montréal-born artist who makes films, paintings, books, photographs, cartoons and music — and keeps full creative control over all of it.

He studied film animation at Concordia University in the mid-1990s, started out drawing comic books, then worked his way through the British Columbia film industry: odd jobs, production design on indie features such as Rage A.T.M. and Shattered Souls, and a role opposite Brinke Stevens in Vince D’Amato’s Heads Are Gonna Roll.

Arts-council grants let him make his own shorts and experimental features. Paradise Lost won Best Experimental Short in New York, Ascension screened in the Cannes Short Film Corner, and Goin’ Ape — which he wrote, directed, edited and starred in — is held at the Cinémathèque québécoise.

His painting is low-brow and proud of it: a comic-book line borrowed from 1990s Dark Horse, a 1950s B-movie attitude, and an eye for classical Greek art. The work ranges from portraits to landscapes, usually funny, often extreme, and always showing things as they are.

02 — Paintings & Photographs

The wall.

Bad Cat by Toly A.K.: oil painting of a pale face with heavy black-rimmed eyes, in black, red and mustard.

Classical Meme by Toly A.K.: cartoon painting of two headless classical statues in a round mirror held up by a dark-haired figure, while a blonde woman in a red dress says “Visual-lies!”

Bandit by Toly A.K.: painting of a blue-skinned woman in a purple wrestling mask with a waffle, and speech bubbles reading “You want my waffle?” and “I’ll steal your heart.”

Dali's Feet by Toly A.K.: painting of a woman’s legs in black high heels beneath a blue skirt, on a speckled pink background.

Portrait Art by Toly A.K.: painting of a red vulture-like bird’s head among white feathered brushstrokes on black.

Mommy's Little Monster by Toly A.K.: painting of a grey-faced figure with dark spiked hair on a mustard background, with a speech bubble reading “I was wrong…”

3 Brides by Toly A.K.: black, white and grey painting of three pale women in long white gowns standing together.

Sacred Heart by Toly A.K.: painting of a large pink heart crossed by jagged black lines on a grey background.

It's Hopeless by Toly A.K.: cartoon painting of a dark-haired girl in a striped shirt squaring up to a hulking man in a red shirt, with a speech bubble reading “It’s hopeless!”

With My Luck by Toly A.K.: a blue piano falling toward a red-haired cartoon figure, with the words “Leaving on a good note…” and “Goodbye cruel world!”

Junky Girl by Toly A.K.: painting of a grey-faced woman with blue tear streaks and swirling purple hair, with a black cat beside her.

Covid Anarchy by Toly A.K.: painting of chained skeletons in striped prison uniforms around the word “WORK”, with a hooded skull figure, in orange, red and black.

Blu by Toly A.K.: painting of a blue-haired pin-up woman against flames, with a green-haired clown at her side.

Helen by Toly A.K.: airbrushed pin-up of a dark-haired woman in a black corset stretching forward beside a purple balloon.

Who Controls the World, Controls… by Toly A.K.: red, black and white painting of a red-haired nude whose body is decorated with a large flower and trailing vines.

Rasta by Toly A.K.: painting of a snarling, muscular purple-skinned figure in chains and spiked cuffs, against rows of yellow horned skulls.

Brando by Toly A.K.: black-and-white painted portrait of a man in a dark suit with one hand raised to his chest.

Trends by Toly A.K.: painting of an angry yellow rooster under the word “Trending!”, with a speech bubble reading “Bok! Bok!” and a frying pan at its feet.

Free Bird by Toly A.K.: photograph of a robin perched on a barbed-wire fence post in front of a corrugated metal wall.

Angel 1 by Toly A.K.: photograph of a weathered stone angel statue seen from below against a pale sky.

Rich Man / Poor Man by Toly A.K.: photograph of a red shopping cart behind a railing, in front of a white SUV with skull stickers on its window.

Transcend by Toly A.K.: photograph of the back of a white camper trailer branded “Transcend”, seen through strands of barbed wire.

Office Design by Toly A.K.: photograph of a brown leather sofa left on a lawn beside a glass phone booth at dusk, with a white car parked behind.

Travel Memory by Toly A.K.: photograph of a seagull standing beside a tire on a concrete sidewalk.

Wheat by Toly A.K.: photograph of a single stalk of grass in a field against the setting sun.

Prints and originals are sold through Fine Art America. More work lives on DeviantArt.

03 — Film

Shorts, experiments, and one unlikable ape.

Goin’ Ape

Experimental film · writer, director, editor, lead

Made with a CALQ grant, with Toly playing a thoroughly unlikable lead. Screened at the Cinémathèque québécoise and distributed by the CFMDC. Goin’ Ape 2, a black-and-white anti-hero follow-up, is in production with Montréal talent.

Paradise Lost

Experimental short

Best Experimental Short at the New York Independent International Film Festival, 2006.

Ascension

Short

Shown in the Short Film Corner at Cannes, 2006.

Monolethea

Experimental

Made with support from the BC Arts Council, the NFB Filmmaker Assistance Program and a Cineworks post-production grant.

Velvet Dreams · Million Dollar Deals

Shorts

Recognised in Los Angeles in 2016 at IndieFEST and the Accolade Global Film Competition.

Canadian Gothic & the cartoons

Animation

Cartoon work, including the licensed Canadian Gothic. Best Animation at the Cannes World Art Festival, 2023.

27 books and counting.

Short stories, poems, scripts, journals and art books, self-published and held in the archives of the Bibliothèque nationale.

Honorable Mention · LA Book Festival 2022 All Purpose Short stories and poems — the paranormal, the ethereal, and everyday eccentricity. Do You Want Me To Cry Second World War stories from a survivor of the Nazi occupation of Greece. All Art Toly A.K. The paintings, 2002–2011. Anomic The life and times of the author, collected from a four-part series. Scripts No. 9 Three scenarios: Gallela’s Babylon, Dead to Rites, Body by Jane. You Really Fucked Me Journal entries from making movies in Québec.

More titles

Romulous and Remus
Guillotines for Eyelids
North Amerika: Ninth Parallel
Poetry & Collage
Spider Lilly
Dragonfly Summer
Can You Read This?
Mavro
The Court Jester
Pig
Death Republica
Poetry and Selected Writings
King 0
Scarcasm
Book of Skits
Photos 2008–2013

All books on Goodreads Find them on Amazon

05 — Music

Noise.

Nudie Ghoulies

Punk rock

The album We Must Be Dead is on Bandcamp.

Listen on Bandcamp

Dementia 13

Film scores

A CD of score music written for the films.

Find the CD

ZMOG — Blind to the Abyss

With Kendal Zier

A new album in the works. A video from the project took a Special Award of Merit at the UK Animation & Music Video Festival.

06 — The Record

Grants, prizes, screenings.

2024
Profiled in the Montréal Guardian, “A Day in the Life”.
2023
Best Animation, Cannes World Art Festival.
2022
All Purpose — Honorable Mention, Los Angeles Book Festival.
2021
Paintings exhibited in Barcelona.
2019
Exhibited with Artbox in Zurich.
2016
Velvet Dreams at IndieFEST and Million Dollar Deals at the Accolade Global Film Competition, Los Angeles.
2015
One Foot in the Grave screened with Best Shorts, Los Angeles.
2013
Under New Management — a Canadian tour of the films with the CFMDC.
2008
Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec grant for Goin’ Ape.
2006
Paradise Lost — Best Experimental Short, New York Independent International Film Festival. Ascension at the Cannes Short Film Corner.
2004
NFB Filmmaker Assistance Program grant for Streaks in the Mirror.
2001
BC Arts Council and NFB grants for Monolethea.
1998
New York Film Academy Filmcore grant. Chicago Underground Film Festival. Third place, Best Animation, Canadian Annual Film Festival.
1996
Kodak Award, Concordia University. Vancouver International Film Festival.

Also: a ceramic tile in the wall mural at the Montréal Children’s Hospital.

07 — Quick answers

Asked and answered.

Who is Toly A.K.?

Toly A.K. is the working name of Apostoly Peter Kouroumalis, a Montréal-born filmmaker, painter, writer and musician. He trained in film animation at Concordia University, has been making films since the 1990s, and also paints, writes and records music. He also goes by TolyAK and Production21, and is credited elsewhere as Peter Apostoly Kouroumalis or Apostolos Panagiotis Kouroumalis.

What is he known for?

Experimental and independent film, and comic-book-influenced “low-brow” painting. Paradise Lost won Best Experimental Short at the New York Independent International Film Festival in 2006, Ascension screened in the Cannes Short Film Corner the same year, and Goin’ Ape is held at the Cinémathèque québécoise. His paintings have been shown in more than 50 exhibitions, including Zurich and Barcelona.

Where can I watch his films?

Several films and clips are free to watch on his YouTube channel. His experimental films are distributed by the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre (CFMDC), and his credits are listed on IMDb.

Where can I buy his paintings and books?

Prints and originals are sold through Fine Art America. His books are available on Amazon, with the full list on Goodreads.

How do I contact him?

For screenings, commissions and sales, email tolya.k.1apk@gmail.com.

08 — Contact

Screenings, commissions, sales.

tolya.k.1apk@gmail.com