Kristin Sjaarda

After winning an International Scholarship to the Colorado Institute of Art in 1992, Kristin Sjaarda (b. 1971, Canada) went on to work as a photographer for 10 years in the commercial and editorial fields, winning awards in both categories. Lately she has been focusing on fine art photography and ceramics.

Using the style of Dutch Golden Age painters as a jumping-off point, and objects passed down to her from her Dutch grandmother’s family, she photographs flowers grown in her downtown Toronto neighborhood alongside the fauna that live and thrive in an urban environment.

While working from a home studio she is dependent on the schedule of her young family to present opportunities to find the time to work. Both the presence and occasional absence of family enhances the idea of time passing quickly. Watching a flower slowly fade can be likened to watching children mature before our very eyes into adults. The ephemeral nature of her subject matter and her life as a parent are present as themes in her digital photography. In this way, art and life are seamless and integrated.

Kristin Sjaarda has lead workshops and given talks for FLAP Canada in such institutions such as the Ontario Science Centre and Sheridan College about the intersection of art and biology. She lives in Toronto, Canada with her photographer husband and their three boys. She won the artist residence at Kingsbrae gardens for 2020 (postponed to 2022) Kristin is represented by Kahn Gallery in the UK and VanRensburg Gallery in Austrailia and Alison Milne Gallery in Toronto. Her work has been shown in Art Fairs and Galleries in Toronto, Hamburg, Miami, New York and London and are in private collections internationally.