Dear Friend of TOAF,
I am Myta Sayo and I am thrilled to be curating this year’s Art Nest exhibition, which brings large-scale and thought-provoking installations to the public. Art Nest offers a rare opportunity: a space where emerging curators and artists engage directly with public art. These works aren’t made for quiet contemplation in white cubes – they’re placed into the bustle and noise of urban life. That shift changes the stakes. It asks artists to think not only about form and concept, but about visibility, execution, accessibility, and risk.
This year’s artists were selected for the ambition of their practices and the clarity of their proposals. Each one pushes material limits while opening up space for dialogue. As their artworks take shape, I’m excited to share a few thoughts on the nature of their work. (Please read further below).
This is my first time working on a curatorial project of this scale, and I’m deeply grateful for the support of Technical Director Calder Ross, the guidance of Mentor Rui Pimenta, and the leadership of Executive and Creative Director anahita azrahimi.
Right now, these works exist as sketches, models, and conversations. The artists are creating them as you read this, and soon, they’ll take shape. I look forward to watching these works emerge, and to sharing more with you as they do.
Thank you,
Myta Sayo,
Art Nest 2025.
Myta on the Artists and Their Works
Sharl G. Smith is building a freestanding sculpture from oversized stainless steel beads and aircraft cable. She and her team undertake the arduous task of weaving under tension, creating a structural tapestry that feels both solid and ephemeral. Drawing on physical forces, she composes a visual language that reminds us how our world is built – one knot, one strain at a time.
Tracey-Mae Chambers will create a large-scale woven yarn installation that spans across two trees in the Art Nest square. Her red yarn works speak to belonging, identity, and decolonization. They offer a “soft” intervention in an urban setting, inviting viewers to step in, pause, and reflect.
Svava Juliusson explores the body’s immediate relationship to material. Her totems, made from industrial rope, are twisted, bound, and looped into monumental forms. Her process reveals the tension between structure and collapse, and the quiet logic of how everyday things are held together.
Smith, Chambers, and Juliusson alike reframe weaving as a site of strength and transformation. They ask us to reconsider what kinds of work we value – and the kinds of bodies we imagine performing it.
Julia Jamrozik and Coryn Kempster examine the politics of play. For Art Nest, they’re placing two lifeguard chairs side by side, facing one another. It’s a deceptively simple gesture that stages a moment of encounter: Who climbs up? Who speaks first? What happens when public space becomes a place of mutual attention? Describing their work as “social infrastructure,” they invite both children and adults to drop their guard and engage – with art, with each other.
Jes Young turns to pigeons. They’re creating a porcelain flock in lifelike poses – eating, resting, preening. For Young, pigeons are a metaphor for resilience. Like artists, they persist, even when pushed out or dismissed. Their work is dedicated to those who’ve been “shooed” from spaces and honors those who adapt, endure, and stay.
Young, and Jamrozik and Kempster offer playful interventions that interrupt the seriousness we’re conditioned to bring to art. Their works invite us to play, linger, and look again.
Myta Sayo is an art dealer with extensive experience placing works with collectors across North America, Europe, and Asia. As studio manager at Kal Mansur Studio, she has overseen the production of large-scale artworks for corporate and hospitality projects worldwide. From 2015 to 2021, she founded and operated reference: contemporary, an online gallery that exhibited in nine New York and three Miami art fairs. From 2021 to 2024, she ran Myta Sayo Gallery in Toronto’s vibrant Dundas West neighbourhood, presenting exhibitions by mid-career and emerging artists. (Read full bio).
Hear from Rui Pimenta, Art Nest Advisor
“It brings me great pleasure to see Art Nest grow into its fourth year, along with the commitment TOAF has demonstrated in supporting this program. Over this time Art Nest has provided its participating artists and curators a hands-on opportunity to develop their work while considering questions and imagining possibilities around what constitutes public art. I am grateful to the various curators I’ve invited and been fortunate enough to work with over the last three years for how they’ve informed and stimulated my own curatorial practice.”
— Rui Pimenta, Art Nest Advisor
Hear from Calder Ross, Art Nest Technical Director
“I am a huge fan of TOAF’s Art Nest. Over the past four years, it has been a delicious challenge and an incredible privilege to help bring ambitious sculptural installations to life at Nathan Phillips Square. Each year has pushed the boundaries of creativity and technical execution, and I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with such inspiring artists and curators. This upcoming year promises to be no exception.”— Calder Ross, Art Nest Technical Director
