Lassonde Art Trail Artist Talks

Lassonde Art Trail Artist Talks: Monira Al Qadiri

Join us for the first in the series of Lassonde Art Trail Artist Talks, organized in partnership with the ROM. 

We are thrilled to launch the series with a talk by artist Monira Al Qadiri that centers on her public artwork First Sun, a co-commission between the Lassonde Art Trail in Toronto and Public Art Fund in New York City. Al Qadiri will share the inspiration and creative development behind this majestic sculpture and how it responds to its future context in Toronto’s new Biidaasige Park and its former location in Central Park, NYC. She will also contextualize this project within her broader practice of creating public art and large-scale sculpture, and her interest in themes including a post-oil future, gender fluidity, ecological interdependence, and mysticism. 

First Sun will be on view on the Lassonde Art Trail from September 12. The sculpture is a hybrid human-scarab figure that reimagines the ancient Egyptian deity Khepri—the god of the rising sun—as a modern monument. The figure’s face is a dazzling iridescent scarab beetle, rendered in crystal-based pigments that shift in colour depending on the light and time of day. The scarab, whose appearance at dawn was associated with the daily rebirth of the sun, invites viewers to reconsider humanity’s reverence for nature and the creatures we often ignore, fear, or exterminate. At a towering 17 feet tall and resplendent in purple and green hues, the sculpture reflects Al Qadiri’s interest in how humanity explores the unknown through science, religion, mythology, and art. 

First Sun was co-commissioned by the Lassonde Art Trail and Public Art Fund and was previously exhibited at Doris C. Freedman Plaza, New York City, Sept 3, 2025 – Aug 3, 2026. 

Program Partner: Lassonde Art Trail

For more information on First Sun and the Lassonde Art Trail.