September 26
Note: The Calls (Toronto) is a performance-based exhibition and will take place on September 27, 2026 beginning at 12pm. For complete information, including how to sign-up, visit the Events page.
Artwork Description:
First performed in Denmark, Brendan Fernandes’ The Calls (2023) was conceived during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it remarks on moments of civil unrest and state violence through the enduring sounds of police and ambulance sirens. Developed amidst the anxieties of that moment, the performance resonates to this day. Inviting Brendan to consider Lake Ontario as a location for the second iteration of this work resulted in The Calls (Toronto) (2026), which emphasizes the idea of an embodied journey or encounter. Situated on a ship in Lake Ontario, a choir of eighteen voices is accompanied by two dancers who act as guides, combining abstract sounds and vocal sirens as the ship moves across the lake. For the artist, this new version expands upon notions of solidarity while proposing new ways to gather, move, and resist in these precarious times.
Co-presented by the Toronto Biennial of Art and TO Live
Bio
Bio
Brendan Fernandes
Brendan Fernandes (b. 1979, Nairobi, Kenya) is an internationally recognized Canadian artist working at the intersection of dance and visual arts. Currently based in Chicago, his practice addresses issues of race, queer culture, migration, protest, and other forms of collective movement. Constantly seeking to create new spaces and forms of agency, Fernandes’ work often takes on hybrid forms: part ballet, part queer dance party, part political protest always rooted in collaboration and fostering solidarity. Fernandes is a graduate of the Whitney Independent Study Program (2007) and has been the recipient of numerous awards, including a Robert Rauschenberg Residency Fellowship (2014), a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (2020), an Artadia Award (2019), a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant (2019), and most recently, the Platform Award (2024). In 2024, he was also honored with the Creative Voice Award by Arts Alliance Illinois. His work has been presented at prestigious venues such as the 2019 Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (Chicago), the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York), the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles), the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), and the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MAC), among many others. Fernandes is an Associate Professor in the Department of Art, Theory, and Practice at Northwestern University. He is represented by Monique Meloche Gallery in Chicago and Susan Inglett Gallery in New York. Recent and upcoming projects include performances and solo presentations at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation (St. Louis, MO), the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (Denver, CO), the Fabric Workshop and Museum (Philadelphia, PA), and Prospect.6 (New Orleans, LA). In spring 2026, a major new commission and solo exhibition will debut at the Driehaus Museum in Chicago.
Photo by Michael Salisbury.
Location
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Accessibility
The Tall Ship Kajama
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Getting There
The Tall Ship Kajama
Linked to the closest address. The boat is docked right across from The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery.
Partners
