Stantec Window Gallery

Our newest installation and collaboration with DesignTO + OCAD U Career Launchers— Remnants for the Future is a site-responsive textile installation that reflects on diasporic memory, inherited traditions, and cultural hybridity. Originally presented as a large-scale immersive sculpture, the work is composed of hand-knotted net structures using undyed natural fibers, embedded with organic copper fragments. These forms resemble clay vessels, stones, or charred remnants — evoking the domestic, the archaeological, and the ancestral. Remnants for the Future considers how identity is shaped by what is carried, inherited, and reconstructed. In a former garment district, this installation becomes a poetic echo of labor histories — domestic and industrial, visible and obscured. It speaks to fragmentation and resilience, offering a slow, tactile counterpoint to the velocity of urban life just outside the window. Its porous, mesh-like surface mediates visibility — a metaphor for diasporic presence that is both seen and filtered through layers of history and place. Yana Rzayeva is an Azerbaijani Canadian interdisciplinary artist whose practice spans textiles, painting, and installation. She holds a BFA in Drawing and Painting and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Art, Media, and Design from OCAD University. Her practice explores diasporic identity, cultural hybridity, and ancestral knowledge. Drawing from her personal diasporic experience and traditional Azerbaijani craft practices, she weaves together inherited memory with contemporary concerns around displacement, fragmentation, and belonging. Her work is grounded in sustainable materials and techniques passed down through generations. @yana_rayva @designtofestival Photography by @tomarbanphotography

Happy to announce my textile installation Remnants for the Future as part of DesignTO festival 2026. See it at @stantecwindowgallery between December 20 and March 18, 2026. Check link in bio to learn more about the project. Thank you Stantec, @ocaducead and @designtofestival for this opportunity. Celebrate the 16th annual DesignTO Festival, Jan 23-Feb 1, 2026. Canada’s largest celebration of design hosts 100+ free events and exhibits across Toronto. Celebrating 16 transformative years with over 1M attendees, 7K+ creatives, and $120M in tourism impact. Let’s design a sustainable, just, and joyful future together! Photo credit: @laikenbreau . . . . . . #DesignTO26 #designto #torontodesign #windowartinstallation #textileinstallation

As the days grow shorter our new installation brings colour and light to our neighbourhood. Afaf Naseem’s Signals of the City: Crossing Paths is in the window until late December. This work explores traffic signals as a common language across cultures, while reflecting on the states of pause, transition and movement embodied in urban spaces. This work was recently displayed during Nuit Blanche. Photography by @tomarbanphotography

Visit the corner of Spadina Ave and Wellington St. W to see our current installation; Knitting Echoes created by artists Ailin Dong @dalin_dal and Xinzhou Zhang @xinzhou_xz . Knitting Echoes explores future textiles through ten robotic arms that respond to sound, stretching knitted fabric to reveal an evolving dialogue between technology, environment, and traditional craftsmanship. Photography by @tomarbanphotography

Come see our new installation! Knitting Echoes explores future textiles through ten robotic arms that respond to sound, stretching knitted fabric to reveal an evolving dialogue between technology, environment, and traditional craftsmanship. Artists: Ailin Dong , Xinzhou Zhang [Professional photography coming soon]

Our beautiful new installation, Thread by artist Anoosh Mubashar @anart45m . Photography by Tom Arban

Our current exhibit is Thread by Anoosh Mubashar

Here’s a sneak peek at the detail in our new installation- a gorgeous artwork by Anoosh Mubashar. More information to come shortly…

Our current Stantec Window Gallery installation by Ernesto Cabral de Luna Snapshot: Foto de Familia [2024) DesignTO x Stantec Window Gallery Career Launcher Program On display December 21, 2024 - March 20, 2025 DesignTO Festival: Friday, January 24 – Sunday, February 2, 2025 Photography: Tom Arban Snapshot: Foto de Familia, is a mixed-media art piece that explores the delicate interplay between memory, material degradation, and artistic resurrection. This large-scale installation of a family photograph transferred onto corroded copper showcases the visual distortion of memories through the physical wear of materiality. The work invites viewers to reflect on the fragility of personal history and how time alters both physical and emotional landscapes. The central element is an archival family photograph that undergoes multiple displacements: first, transferred onto a corroded copper plate, then digitized, and finally enlarged in a large-scale photographic print. This process reflects the human impulse to preserve memories— whether through physical objects or digital means—while acknowledging the fact that all will eventually deteriorate. Themes of decay, preservation, and temporal erosions are highlighted through the textural distortions, from the rich patina of the metal to the cracks and wrinkles of the photograph. The wear and tear of the material evokes reflection on the impact of time on personal histories.

Stantec Window Gallery, DesignTO, and the RBC Centre for Emerging Artists & Designers are excited to announce a public window gallery exhibition Career Launcher, providing an exhibition opportunity for one (1) exhibition proposal from current OCAD U students and recent grads to show their work as part of the 2025 DesignTO festival. Artists and designers are invited to submit proposals for existing work to be shown from December 21, 2024 to March 20, 2025 in our Stantec Window Gallery space. Qualifications: Current OCAD U undergraduate and masters students, and recent OCAD U grads (2023 or 2024). Collectives and groups are welcome to apply as long as the group consists only of eligible OCAD U students/grads. MAAD, SCIN, IAMD students and grads are encouraged to apply. Further detail and submission Instructions can be found here:

Images by @tomarbanphotography that show off the stunning cyanotype installation in our window by artist @brendawebstertweel

Our new installation is in place! We are very excited to have this beautiful new work by artist and colleague Brenda Webster Tweel in our window. Professional photos coming soon.