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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4. Second Shade




Second Shade
The Bentway
May 23 - August 21,  2025

Artist: Mary Mattingly
Curator: Megan Kammerer
Producer: Jeremy Forsyth

Production Assistance: Alex Chacinski, Dan Bergeron, Layne Hinton, Joey Aguilar, Sophia Malbarosa,
Fabrication: Action Scaffolding, Steel & Oak Designs, Beech Nursery

Photo Documentation: Samuel Engelking


 As temperatures rise and the city continues to grow denser, the need for cooling strategies in Toronto has never been more urgent. Dominated by concrete and glass, urban environments absorb, retain, and omit heat, making them increasingly inhospitable areas in the face of global climate change. In response, how can we design our built landscapes to better regulate temperature and create more livable and adaptable public spaces?

Situated atop the hill along Strachan Avenue, on the west edge of The Bentway site, Second Shade is a new sculptural installation by artist Mary Mattingly that envisions the city’s evolving skyline as an integrated, climate-attentive ecosystem. Combining lush greenery and repurposed construction materials, the piece forms an abstracted urban canopy—a powerful signpost for the cooling potential of emerging architecture as the city continues to grow.

The design echoes both the towering structures of downtown skyscrapers and a forest of trees, each acting as multileveled community systems that support life and survival. The sun-loving and heat-tolerant plantings demonstrate the capabilities of green roofs and soft landscaping, highlighting the importance ofvegetation that can combat heat absorption. By repurposing and reimagining the materials that shape our city, Mattingly highlights the potential for a built environment that doesn’t just grow upward and outward but creates new possibilities for responsive architecture that cools our public spaces against a warming environment.

Second Shade is commissioned by The Bentway. Supported by the Balsam Foundation, City of Toronto, Government of Ontario, and TD Bank Group. With help from partners at the David Cornfield Melanoma Fund and the Save Your Skin Foundation.