Canada’s leading international visual arts event has attracted over 1.3 million visitors since its launch in 2019. Over its three editions, TBA has built a legacy of free, inclusive, and accessible contemporary art exhibitions and programming in Toronto and its surrounding areas. Grounded in diverse local contexts, TBA offers expanded understandings of contemporary art practices, while bridging communities, and contributing to global conversations. Each Biennial connects people to spark meaningful dialogues and imagine new futures.
We’re excited to share our new partnerships with the Art Museum at the University of Toronto and the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) for the 2026 Biennial. We’re also thrilled to highlight two artists whose work will appear in the next edition: Cameron Harvey and Dawoud Bey. Follow along on Instagram or through our Newsletter as we go behind the scenes in the lead-up to the 2026 Biennial, and stay tuned for the full artists list coming this spring.
2026 Curator
For the fourth edition of the Toronto Biennial of Art we are thrilled to announce New York-based curator and writer Allison Glenn as the 2026 Curator. Glenn was chosen by the Biennial’s Curatorial Selection Committee, composed of TBA 2024 Co-Curators Dominique Fontaine and Miguel López, TBA 2019 and 2022 Senior Curator, Candice Hopkins, as well as Camille Usher, Léuli Eshrāghi, and Elvira Dyangani Ose. Glenn brings an incredible depth of experience to the organization with a focus on art and public space.
Glenn is a New York-based curator and writer focusing on the intersection of art and public space through public art and special projects, biennials, and major new commissions by a wide range of contemporary artists. For over fifteen years, Glenn has been devoted to realizing ambitious and experimental exhibitions and site-specific projects with artists working across the globe.
Glenn will collaborate with a new National Curatorial Advisory, composed of six curators from leading institutions across Canada. The Advisory will inform and support her work, providing further insight into Canadian contexts and artist practices from across the country. Through the Advisory, TBA is forging new partnerships with institutions across Canada, strengthening the Biennial’s mission to create an international platform for Canadian artists that remains grounded in unique Canadian experiences.
Image by Grace Roselli.
2026 Partnership with the Art Museum
We are excited to announce a new partnership with the Art Museum at the University of Toronto for the Biennial’s 2026 edition. This collaboration will be presented across the Art Museum’s spaces – the University of Toronto’s Art Centre and the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery – which will collectively serve as TBA’s main exhibition hub, and public programming and learning space. TBA and the Art Museum will explore additional joint initiatives for the 2026 Biennial to deeply engage the University of Toronto’s dynamic student base and broader community.
To further support this collaboration, we are also happy to share that the Art Museum’s Executive Director and Chief Curator, Barbara Fischer, has joined TBA’s new National Curatorial Advisory. The committee’s insights will inform the Biennial’s exhibition and support the growth of Canadian contemporary visual artists on an international stage.
“It will be a great pleasure to work in collaboration with the wonderful, cross-country Advisory group to support Allison Glenn’s curatorial vision. We are immensely proud to engage with the entire Biennial team to develop the 2026 exhibition for its presentation at the Art Museum at the University of Toronto. Together we will create an exciting hub of stimulating, public facing and experiential programs of contemporary art in the midst of the City.” — Barbara Fischer
2026 Partnership with the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO)
We’re delighted to announce that the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) will once again join the Toronto Biennial of Art as an exhibition partner for our 2026 edition. A selection of works curated by Allison Glenn from acclaimed artist Dawoud Bey will be on view from July 25, 2026 until Spring 2027.
This focused installation will pull from three of the artist’s landscape-based projects: Night Coming Tenderly, Black; In This Here Place; and Stony the Road. The centrepiece will be 350,000 (2023), a two-channel video that reimagines the journey made by 350,000 enslaved Africans along the Richmond Slave Trail between 1830 and1860.
Installation view of Dawoud Bey: Stony the Road at Sean Kelly, New York, January 10 – February 22, 2025, Photography: Adam Reich, Courtesy: Sean Kelly, New York.