Megan Kammerer
Curator / Writer / Researcher


Exhibitions
  1. A Lake Story
  2. Bathed in Strange Light
  3. la sombra que te cobija
  4. Second Shade
  5. Milestone Nerve
  6. To our reunited future
  7. Memories of the Mountain
  8. Shadow Games
  9. Spoiled Milk
  10. Every Beloved Object
  11. Prelude / Requiem
  12. Anoxic Memory
  13. Sutures
  14. Yesterday is Melting


Writing


Info

Megan Kammerer (she/her) is a curator and writer based in Toronto, Canada. She has held various positions with the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington, The Bentway, Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Blackwood Gallery, and the Art Gallery of Guelph where she worked to support critically engaged exhibition programmes across Southern Ontario.



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1. A Lake Story  




A Lake Story
The Bentway
September 27 & 28,  2025

Artist: Melissa McGill
Project Collaborators: Jason Logan, The Toronto Ink Company,  Dr. Duke Redbird

Curated by: Ilana Altman and Alex Rand
Associate Curators: Renee Castonguay and Megan Kammerer
Producers: Veronica Barton, Stephanie Dudek, Jeremy Forsyth, and Sue Holland

Production Assistance: Robin Akitt, Sophie Boulianne, Trida Simone Easey, Savannah Garvin, Melina Ghasem-Asad, Meerah Graham, Akash Inbakumar, and  Ben Freedman

Photo Documentation: Andrew Williamson


 A Lake Story is a new commission by artist Melissa McGill, taking the form of a large-scale canoe procession that wrote Lake Ontario’s story through colour, across the sky and water. Featuring 400+ local canoers and paddlers joining us for this memorable performance, participants paddled in a coordinated, slow-moving procession. An epic celebration of Lake Ontario and the re-naturalization of the Don River, the project maps Toronto’s harbour and waterfront biosphere with the lake’s own vocabulary expressed through its natural color palette. By giving visual voice to the interconnected relationships above and below the waters, the project invites us to shift our perspective to participate in and learn from nature’s wisdom and creativity.

McGill developed this site-specific natural colour story in collaboration with Jason Logan of the Toronto Ink Company. Together, McGill and Logan gathered and worked with natural and found material from the waters and shoreline to collaborate with the creative expression of the lake itself. Featuring materials such as goldenrod, clay, algae, red brick, and wild grape sourced from Leslie Street Spit, Gibraltar Point, and the re-naturalized Don River among others, these colours were used to create vibrant wind-activated colour field paintings that danced above the canoe procession to communicate Lake Ontario’s vibrant resilience both above and below its waters. Together water, colour, wind, and paddlers expressed the lake’s language and told its vital story.

A Lake Story celebrates the ongoing environmental commitment of Toronto’s Waterfront and the re–naturalization of the Don River, and is only possible thanks to the collaboration of many partners involved, including Waterfront Toronto, Waterfront BIA, Ports Toronto, Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, Nieuport Aviation, Redpath Sugar, Toronto Foundation, and community support from the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority,  Nova Craft Canoe, City of Toronto, Cherry Street BBQ, CreateTO, George Brown College, Harbourfront Centre, Ontario Arts Council, Paddle.ca, Salus Marine, TAS, T Dot Water Taxi, Toronto Island Marina, and York Bay Marine.

With special thanks to Canoe Heads for Kids, Eric Davies, Don’t Mess With the Don, Lorella Di Cintio, Firemen Movers, Harbourfront Centre Canoe and Kayak Centre, Sally Han, Island Yacht Club, Dave Lovas, Helen Mills, Colleen McCarten, Karen McDonald, Bonnie McElhinny, Yvonne Monestier, Jenifer Redsky, Oceah Oceah, Ontario Recreational Canoe and Kayak Association, Rick Portiss, Steve Procunier, Ellis Michael Quinn, Chris Rath, Heidi Sopinka, and Nancy Wolfe.