Kristin Sjaarda: Field Work

CONTACT Photography Festival

Circle Study #29 Garden Avenue Chestnuts, 2026, 48″ x 48″

Akasha Art Projects is pleased to present Field Work, a CONTACT Photography Festival solo exhibition of work by Canadian artist Kristin Sjaarda

May 5 – 30, 2026
Artist Talk: May 30, 3 – 5pm
Akasha Art Projects, Toronto

CONTACT Photography Festival
contactphoto.com/festival/2026/open-call/field-work-sjaarda

Field Work is a tribute to the dedication of the Ontario flower farmers who produce the flora that appear in these photographs, as well as to the ecologists who research our environment and its current crisis. With the inclusion of birds and eggs in this collection, borrowed from the ROM, as well as the butterflies, moths, bees and other fauna that complete the arrangements in the manner of 17th-century Northern Renaissance paintings, Sjaarda creates an ecosystem within the frame of the artwork that reflects the diversity of plant and animal life integral to a healthy and vigorous natural world.

Edwin Farms, 2024, 33″ x 50″

About the Artist

Kristin Sjaarda is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Toronto. She attended the Colorado Institute of Art on a full tuition international scholarship. Known for her large scale, lush still-life images of garden flowers, her photo-based work has been exhibited internationally. Sjaarda has designed silk scarves using her own digital imagery and hand-made ceramics for use in her photos. She has taught workshops on natural light photography and floral design as well as lectured at Sheridan College. In September 2022 and 2024 she was an Artist in Residence at Kingsbrae Gardens in NB and at the Royal Hotel in Picton ON, respectively. Her photography is in many private and corporate collections including TD Bank Corporate Art Collection in Toronto, ON. In January 2025, the Art Gallery of Hamilton hosted her third solo show. At Art Toronto in October 2025, her work was represented by Smokestack Gallery, Hamilton and Lustre Gallery, Toronto.

“Using Northern Renaissance paintings as a jumping-off point, photography is the medium through which Sjaarda investigates the urban environment. Ontario-grown flowers, vessels from her Dutch immigrant family, birds and eggs borrowed from the ROM, and naturally-collected specimens are arranged and captured as still-life images. Inspired by the work of Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750), particularly the depiction of nature’s impermanence, these images reflect the fleeting beauty of flora while confronting contemporary concerns of climate-change and degradation. In this way vanitas is no longer symbolic of mortality but instead looks outward; an admonition to respect and preserve the environment that supports our existence.”

Instagram @ksjaar

Lake Huron Sunset, 2026, 33.5″ x 50″

About Akasha Art Projects

At the intersection of art & design, we provide creative solutions for all things art.

At Akasha, we are all grateful for the opportunity to work and be situated on the sacred land and territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, the Anishinaabe, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat. We acknowledge this land is also home to many Métis and Inuit peoples. We honour the land we work on in the spirit of peace and respect.

Akasha Art Projects
204D Carlton Street, Toronto
akashaart.com
info@akashaart.com
647-348-0104

Instagram @akashaart

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About CONTACT Photography Festival

The CONTACT Photography Festival is an annual city-wide festival that began in 1997. It encompasses exhibitions, public art installations, and programs that feature the work of local and international lens-based artists every May. The 30th edition of CONTACT will take place May 1 – 31, 2026.

The Open Call Exhibitions extend the festival’s community through the inclusion of independently organized modes of publicly presenting lens based work across the city.

CONTACT Photography Festival
contactphoto.com/festival/2026

Instagram @contactphoto

Image Descriptions:
1. A circular image with vibrant flowers in a copper vase. Chestnuts and gourds are scattered on the table around the vase.
2. A rectangular image of a vibrant bouquet of flowers on a background of a painted sky. There are figs and a broken chicken egg on the table under the vase.
3. Pink and blue flowers are arranged in a silver vessel front of a painted background of a stormy sky with three seabirds flying above the horizon. There are ferns and broken teacup on the table in front of the arrangement.