Yana Rzayeva

Honoured and grateful to receive the Best Window Installation Award from DesignTO ✨

This project grew from threads of memory, material, and community, and it means so much to see it recognized in this way. Thank you to the incredible team at , , , DesignTO 2026 jury, and everyone who stopped to look, linger, and connect with the work.

Remnants for the Future is still on view

Photo Credits
Images 1 and 3:
Images 5 and 6: Ted Chai (), courtesy of Thermador.

The festival may be over, but my DesignTO window installation Remnants for the Future remains on view at the until March 18. If you haven’t seen it in person yet, there’s still time.

Suspended between interior and exterior, these hand-knotted forms hold fragments of copper - a material that carries memory, labour, and transformation.

Seen from the street, the work becomes a threshold: between public and private, permanence and fragility, here and elsewhere.

Thank you Stantec, and for this opportunity.
Photo Credit:

Happy to announce my textile installation Remnants for the Future as part of DesignTO festival 2026. See it at between December 20 and March 18, 2026. Check link in bio to learn more about the project.

Thank you Stantec, and 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:

Unravelled Tradition will be on view at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery as part of Unity Through the Arts exhibition presented by Cultural Expressions for CHANGE. Exhibition runs from October 17 to November 2. Admission is free. Join us for the opening reception on October 16 from 6 to 8 pm. Hope to see you there!
Thank you and

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This work is on view at Leslie Grove Gallery now until Sept. 21, as part of Common Ground: What Unites Us - an art show about connection, community, and our shared spaces. Artwork in this show explores the meaningful connections we share, illuminating the quiet, powerful places where we come together through shared emotion, memory, experience, and a sense of belonging.

Mended
32x32 in.

This work combines encaustic, oil, and natural fibers to explore themes of connection, rupture, and repair. The cascading threads suggest both unraveling and continuity, evoking the fragile yet enduring ties that bind us to memory, community, and belonging.

Unravelled Traditions is on view as part of True North Unshaken exhibition at Leslie Grove Gallery, on now until July 27th, with a reception on July 10th, 6-8 pm. Hope to see you there!

True North, Unshaken showcases a powerful collection of Canadian art that explores what it means to be Canadian today.

Featuring diverse voices, the exhibition highlights our deep connections to each other and the land. It celebrates how we forge our own path forward with resilience and creative independence.

Thank you all who came by to see my MFA thesis exhibit - Pulling Threads: Weaving Memory and Identity

Pulling Threads: Weaving Memory and Identity
Yana Rzayeva – MFA Thesis Exhibition
Reception on March 28, 4-8 pm, 205 Richmond St. W.

Image credit:

Pulling Threads: Weaving Memory and Identity explores the fragmented experience of diaspora through textile installations that bridge ancestral knowledge and contemporary practice. Rooted in the artist’s Azerbaijani heritage, the works are imbued with stories of migration, adaptation, and the tension between preserving tradition and embracing transformation. Using fibers hand-dyed with natural materials—such as spices commonly used in Azerbaijani cuisine—the artist draws a visceral connection between the sensory
experiences of home and the complexities of cultural displacement.

Incorporating traditional Azerbaijani weaving and knotting techniques, the works become hybridized objects that reflect the layered nature of diasporic identity. These textiles intertwine the past and present, echoing
the ways diasporic communities navigate the intersections of memory and belonging. Each piece, made with natural and sustainable materials, honors ancestral knowledge while simultaneously questioning how traditions evolve when uprooted and transplanted across borders.

Through this tactile language, the artist celebrates the resilience and adaptability inherent in diasporic narratives. The works stand as embodiments of cultural hybridity—neither entirely fixed in tradition nor fully
assimilated—mirroring the lived experiences of those who exist between worlds. In weaving together these disparate threads, Pulling Threads invites viewers to consider how cultural practices endure, transform, and
create new meanings across generations.

I’m excited to announce that I’ll be a part of the 62nd Toronto Outdoor Art Fair, taking place at Nathan Phillips Square July 7 - 9 and online at TOAF.ca from July 2 - 9, 2023!
Don’t forget to follow and the hashtag to explore this year's amazing Artists!

Part of my undergraduate thesis, this work investigates issues of identity and belonging. The rug borders stand as metaphor for geographical borders and the cut-out element is aimed to convey the fragmented nature of diasporic living.

This work, among others, will be on view next week at GradEx 108 - OCAD University’s annual graduate exhibition. GradEx is runs May 3-7 and is open to public. Come see my work, alongside many amazing artists’ whom I was fortunate enough to spend the last year with.

Diffusion, 18x24 encaustic, oil, and textile on cradled wood panel.

This work is on view at until February 5th as part of ‘Hello Yellow’ - a juried group exhibition of 30 artists. Opening reception is tonight at 7 pm. Many of the participating artists will be in attendance, including myself. Everyone is welcome!
Thank you for organizing.

Saffron Dreams. 18x24 encaustic and textile on cradled board.

Final piece completed for “Your Brain on Art,” an annual fundraiser by
Delta, 18x24 encaustic and oil on cradled wood - will be available for auction on November 10th with the proceeds going towards alternative brain research across Canada. Check link in bio for tickets and more information!