Exhibitions in Toronto
January 2027
January at a glance: 3 exhibitions opening, 7 closing, and 20 more on view across the city.
Opening in January
- Donna Gottschalk: We Others20 Jan
The Image Centre · Free
Photographs by American photographer Donna Gottschalk in the Main Gallery, guest-curated by Hélène Giannecchini.
- Cao Fei: Isle of Instability20 Jan
The Image Centre · Free
Cao Fei's 2020 multimedia installation, commissioned by Audemars Piguet Contemporary, on the Salah J. Bachir New Media Wall. Guest curator Simone Estrin.
- Lee Shulman & Omar Victor Diop: Being There20 Jan
The Image Centre · Free
Photographic collaboration between Lee Shulman (The Anonymous Project) and Omar Victor Diop. University Gallery, curated by Gaëlle Morel.
Closing in January
Crawford Lake: Layers in Time3 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 Choices3 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 Fashion3 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.
Rouzbeh Akhbari: Of Wool and Diesel23 JanMercer 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.
Michael Massie: now and then30 JanOnsite 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 Siblings30 JanOnsite 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.
Chinese Zodiac Case: Year of the Horse31 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.
Also on through January
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.
Delcy Morelos: Ombligoto 14 FebMuseum of Contemporary Art Toronto (MOCA)
A site-specific installation by Colombian artist Delcy Morelos: sisal rope, soil and Toronto-harvested corn roots swell from the ceiling of Floor 2.
Bharti Kher: Bonesto 14 FebMuseum of Contemporary Art Toronto (MOCA)
Fifteen years of Bharti Kher's assemblages: sari-clad hybrid figures, stone and concrete forms and bindi-covered paintings, with a monumental new tondo.
Beverly Glenn-Copeland: Light of the Heavensto 14 FebMuseum of Contemporary Art Toronto (MOCA)
The South Stairwell Sound Series plays a recently recovered c.1986 song by Canadian composer Beverly Glenn-Copeland, from the Keyboard Fantasies era.
Northumberlandto 20 FebGallery 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.
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.
Torkwase Dyson: The Distance Inside Us (Bird and Lava)to 6 MarThe 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 Neoconstantinopolitanismto 6 MarThe 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.
Saks Afridi: SpaceMosqueto 7 MarAga Khan Museum
Saks Afridi's speculative sci-fi narrative uses recovered artifacts, sound and archives to trace a mysterious vessel said to answer collective prayers.
Sharon Lockhart: Fogoto 21 MarThe Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery · Free
Sharon Lockhart's Fogo Island Portrait Studio photographs and the film installation WINDWARD, a long, attentive look at Newfoundland's Fogo Island and its people.
Zadie Xa with Benito Mayor Vallejo: Moonlit Confessions Across Deep Sea Echoes: Your Ancestors Are Whales, and Earth Remembers Everythingto 21 MarThe Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery · Free
Paintings, murals, sound and a conch-shaped mobile of 600+ brass bells weave Korean mythology, diaspora and marine ecology into a multi-sensory installation.
Owner of a Lonely Heartto 21 MarThe Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery · Free
An 80-minute looping film program by Haig Aivazian, Stephanie Comilang, Alia Farid, Hope Pearl Strickland and Yuyan Wang on labour, ecosystems and commodities.
Adaptive Ceramic Historiesto 29 MarGardiner Museum
Medical and adaptive ceramics made for sick or disabled users, from the 17th century to today, seen from the patient's side of care. Curated by Alexandra Box.
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.
After the Island: Caribbean Canadian Ceramicsto 25 AprGardiner Museum
PJ Anderson, Eddy Firmin, Manuel Mathieu and Sharon Norwood use clay to explore Caribbean diaspora memory, identity and belonging, in partnership with BAND and MoAD.
Retracing Tatreez: Palestinian Thobes through the 20th Centuryto 2 MayTextile 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.
Over and Over Againto 17 JunArt 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.
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.