What's on in Toronto
September 2026
September at a glance: 18 exhibitions opening, 3 closing, and 16 more on view across the city.
Permanent guide to September 2026 →
Opening in September
Michael Massie: now and then2 SeptOnsite Gallery (OCAD University) · Free
Career survey of Inuk silversmith and sculptor Michael Massie: iconic teapots, unexhibited pieces and new large-scale installations full of joy and humour.
Returning to Ourselves: Rebecca Baird and Kenny Alvin Baird—A Retrospective of Art and Design by Cree Métis Siblings2 SeptOnsite Gallery (OCAD University) · Free
Forty years of sculpture, painting, traditional materials, interior and graphic design, film art direction and public art by Cree Métis siblings Rebecca and Kenny Baird.
Stolen Childhoods8 SeptRoyal Ontario Museum
Survivor-led exhibition on the Mohawk Institute in Brantford, Canada's longest-running Indian Residential School, through archives, photos and interviews.
- Madison Chow: Overflow9 Sept
The Image Centre · Free
Camera-less lumen prints made at the shoreline, letting lake and ocean water etch their own portraits onto photographic paper. Student Gallery.
- Tanya Marcuse: Portent9 Sept
The Image Centre · Free
A multichannel video of ominous natural scenes, from swaying trees to volcanic vapour, on the New Media Wall, drawn from Marcuse's Book of Miracles series.
- Richard Avedon Immortal: Portraits of Aging, 1951–20049 Sept
The Image Centre · Free
Nearly 100 Avedon portraits confronting aging, from Toni Morrison to the Dalai Lama, plus a restaging of his 1974 MoMA series on his father Jacob Israel Avedon.
Torkwase Dyson: The Distance Inside Us (Bird and Lava)11 SeptThe Joan and Martin Goldfarb Gallery of York University (formerly AGYU) · Free
Across all three galleries, Torkwase Dyson's painting, sculpture, drawing and animation use abstract "Hypershapes" to explore liberation, confinement and ecological crisis.
Jeanne Randolph with John Monteith, Fabulous Neoconstantinopolitanism11 SeptThe Joan and Martin Goldfarb Gallery of York University (formerly AGYU) · Free
Randolph's recluse La Betty staged with Vasarely, Albers and Motherwell from York's collection and a rug by John Monteith. Visible Vault; fully open Wed and Sat.
Over and Over Again16 SeptArt Museum at the University of Toronto · Free
Carol-Ann Apilado, Kuh Del Rosario, Sukaina Kubba and Esmelyn Miranda Orozco use weaving to probe broken patterns. At the Jackman Humanities Institute, Mon–Fri 9–4.
- Journey of the Mind17 Sept
Campbell House Museum · Free
Touring show by without SHAPE without FORM, a Toronto Biennial Parallel Project: contemporary art and short films on Sikh teachings about the mind, by 24 artists.
Static and Noise18 SeptGallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography · Free
Aliyah Aziz, Bret Parenteau, Kite and Nathan Ivanco treat image noise as audio noise, drawing on punk, noise and DIY music scenes to make distorted, glitchy work.
body — mind — distance18 SeptGallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography · Free
In the Vitrines, Sabrina Vachon explores how diasporic bodies are perceived in different places, and the psychic distance between body and memory.
From the Laurentian Highlands to a Higher Place18 SeptGallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography · Free
WOO SEE-MING photographs his late mother's Quebec village in the Laurentians, a pilgrimage in which time, sadness, love and joy collapse into one.
Magnus Hara: The Light of Day18 SeptGardiner Museum
Vases by 2024 Gardiner Museum Prize winner Magnus Hara, altering and combining familiar forms as a reclamation of joy and autonomy after grief, loss and injury.
Northumberland18 SeptGallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography · Free
Boxing photographer Pete Doherty weaves ring images with photos of his dying parents and their Ontario town into a portrait of a life remade by loss.
Retracing Tatreez: Palestinian Thobes through the 20th Century24 SeptTextile Museum of Canada
Palestinian embroidered thobes and jellayeh from the collection, most shown for the first time, curated by Nina Rafique with restored context on their regional motifs and journeys.
Things Fall Apart26 SeptArt Museum at the University of Toronto · Free
The fourth Toronto Biennial of Art, curated by Allison Glenn, explores rupture through the Great Lakes and global waterways, across both campus galleries.
Rouzbeh Akhbari: Of Wool and Diesel26 SeptMercer Union, a Centre for Contemporary Art · Free
A film installation tracing sheep smuggling and seafaring histories along a trade corridor from Azerbaijan to Oman, with archival material and handmade felt works.
Last chance
Rough & Ready: A History of the Cowboy Boot20 SeptBata Shoe Museum
The cowboy boot from its late-19th-century invention to ranches, cinema and contemporary fashion, with pieces from the collection and 13 lenders.
![Alize Zorlutuna, Surface Tension: To Comb [Tarak] at Mercer Union](https://stjzqvtsmrdsnxjcolnn.supabase.co/storage/v1/render/image/public/martin-and-lewis/registry/exhibitions/a3a09cc91a0d4590bb31d5b90a17830a.webp?width=96&quality=75)
Alize Zorlutuna: Surface Tension: To Comb [Tarak]22 SeptMercer Union, a Centre for Contemporary Art · Free
Alize Zorlutuna's sculptural banners cut into large-format reproductions of Ebru, the marbled hydrographic printing technique, releasing the movement within.
Dressing The Abbey30 SeptCasa Loma
Original costumes worn by the stars of Downton Abbey, from tweeds and servants' uniforms to beaded evening gowns, shown on Casa Loma's 2nd and 3rd floors.
Also on through September
Diego Marcon: The Bubble Boyto 4 OctArt Gallery of Ontario
The Italian filmmaker's Canadian debut: unsettling, tender films using CGI, prosthetics and robotics, centred on his newest work Krapfen (2025).
Second Life: Sustainable Textiles Showcaseto 4 OctTextile Museum of Canada
A community exhibition of works made in the museum's free Second Life workshops, exploring sustainable craft and textile making as creative responses to the climate crisis.
BEES: A Story of Survivalto 18 OctRoyal Ontario Museum
Immersive art-meets-science show by National Museums Liverpool and sculptor Wolfgang Buttress tracing 120 million years of bee adaptation and survival.
The Impressionist Revolution: Monet to Matisse from the Dallas Museum of Artto 18 OctArt Gallery of Ontario
Canadian debut of the Dallas Museum of Art's survey of Impressionism and its legacy, with Monet, Morisot, Van Gogh, Pissarro, Gauguin, Matisse, Mondrian and Munch.
Psychedelics: Art. Culture. Science.to 6 DecRoyal Ontario Museum
A research-driven look at the cultural, historical and scientific significance of psychedelics through artworks, objects, botanical specimens and interactives.
In Search of Imperfection: The Macdonald Collection of Japanese and Japanese-Inspired Ceramicsto 31 DecGardiner Museum
The Macdonald Collection shown in full for the first time: early Edo-period Japanese porcelain and Japanese-inspired ceramics, explored through nature, leisure and global trade.
Crawford Lake: Layers in Timeto 3 JanRoyal Ontario Museum
How sediments of a small lake near Milton, Ontario record 1,000 years of human impact, making it the "golden spike" candidate for the Anthropocene.
Critical Minerals: Critical Choicesto 3 JanRoyal Ontario Museum
Gallery installation in Earth's Treasures on the minerals essential to a net-zero society, and the lifestyle choices tied to them.
Always In Fashionto 3 JanTextile Museum of Canada
Curated by Amber-Dawn Bear Robe, an immersive look at how contemporary Indigenous couturiers blend ancestral knowledge with innovation, featuring Kent Monkman, Brian Jungen and more.
Chinese Zodiac Case: Year of the Horseto 31 JanRoyal Ontario Museum
ROM's annual zodiac installation marks the Year of the Horse with horse figures from early China, once placed in tombs to serve the dead.
Made By Many: 50 Years of the Textile Museum of Canadato 1 FebTextile Museum of Canada
A 50th-anniversary show tracing five decades of exhibitions back to the 1970s, with works by Bev Koski, Marimekko, Melinda Patterson, Thor Hansen, You Wenfeng and more.
Spotlight: Spanish Holbein Carpetto 21 FebAga Khan Museum
A 15th-century carpet from Alcaraz, Spain, on loan from MFA Boston, where Muslim weavers blended Turkish designs with Iberian techniques.
André Perugia: A Design Legend Unveiledto 4 AprBata Shoe Museum
Over 95 designs by André Perugia (1893-1977), pioneer of the stiletto heel, made for Dior, Schiaparelli, Josephine Baker and other clients.
Toronto Biennial of Art at the Aga Khan Museumto 11 AprAga Khan Museum · Free
Contemporary works from the Toronto Biennial of Art 2026 across the park, atrium, façade and galleries, including Dawit L. Petros. Free to visit.
Dawoud Bey: Material Histories, Living Landscapesto 4 JulArt Gallery of Ontario
Dawoud Bey's landscape photographs and the two-channel video 350,000 meditate on North American land and Black diasporic history, with works from the AGO's Frum Collection.
Kamrooz Aram: Lapis Interventionto 11 JulAga Khan Museum
Artist Kamrooz Aram co-curates a gallery intervention setting his lapis-blue Arabesque paintings among collection works to challenge Eurocentric display.
Stay in the loop on Toronto
A short note now and then when something new opens worth your time.