A woman with short hair and glasses sitting on a stool in front of a wall covered with sketches and drawings, holding a paintbrush and a tissue.

Canadian visual artist and emergency medicine doctor.

Megan Landes’ work explores the human body in states of profound vulnerability and transition. Informed by her practice in emergency medicine—an experience she regards as a privilege—her drawings engage with moments where fragility and resilience coexist. Rather than depicting specific individuals or events, she distills the figure to its essential presence, allowing gesture, rhythm, and form to evoke experiences that are at once beautiful and frightening. By layering memory, symbol, and context, her work invites viewers to bring forward their own narratives, fostering an intimate connection grounded in the shared uncertainty of being human.

Landes creates large charcoal and ink drawings at human scale, inviting bodily encounter rather than distant observation. The physicality of the materials—layered, erased, and reworked—mirrors the tension between precision and uncertainty inherent in both medicine and drawing. Working intuitively alongside careful observation, her process balances control and surrender, drawing viewers into a shared, embodied experience.

Megan Landes is an emergency medicine physician practicing in downtown Toronto and an Associate Professor and Head of the Division of Emergency Medicine at the University of Toronto. As an emerging visual artist, she has completed postgraduate studies with the Royal Drawing School (UK). Her work has been exhibited in Canada and the UK, including at Bau-Xi Gallery (Toronto), at international health education and emergency medicine conferences and she has completed commissioned works alongside her exhibition practice.

Artist C.V.