On March 26, the second edition of the Toronto Biennial of Art (the Biennial/TBA) will open the doors to free Exhibitions and Programs, presented across several sites, and will remain on view through June 5, 2022.
More than 70 Canadian and international participants will be featured in the exhibition which carries the umbrella title of What Water Knows, The Land Remembers which organizers say “draws from polyphonic histories sedimented in and around Toronto, revealing entangled narratives and ecologies across time and space.”
Artists include: Ghazaleh Avarzamani, Nadia Belerique, Judy Chicago, Jeffrey Gibson, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Marguerite Humeau, Jatiwangi art Factory (JaF), Brian Jungen, Jumana Manna, Eduardo Navarro, Paul Pfeiffer, Eric-Paul Riege, and Buhlebezwe Siwani.
Biennial participants are from over 18 places of origin including Argentina, Canada, England, France, Germany, Indonesia, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Lebanon, Lithuania, Norway, Pakistan, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, United States, and Zimbabwe, as well as Indigenous communities in Canada, Colombia, Aotearoa | New Zealand, Norway, and the United States.
The Biennial’s Exhibitions and Programs are collaboratively developed by Exhibitions Curators Tairone Bastien, Candice Hopkins, Katie Lawson, the Programs team comprising Roxanne Fernandes, Mary Kim, Kesang Nanglu, Emily Schimp, and Ilana Shamoon, as well as former Programs Curators Clare Butcher and Myung-Sun Kim.The inaugural TD Curatorial Fellows, Sebastian De Line and Chiedza Pasipanodya, present their projects as a part of the Biennial.
Most Exhibitions and Programs will be held at the Biennial’s two main Exhibition venues—72 Perth Avenue in the Junction neighborhood and the Small Arms Inspection Building in nearby Mississauga—and will also occur at site-specific locations throughout the city.
Other programming sites include 5 Lower Jarvis Street; Arsenal Contemporary Art; Colborne Lodge; Fort York National Historic Site, Toronto History Museums; High Park; Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto (MOCA); and Textile Museum of Canada.
Opening Week Events
Jatiwangi art Factory (JaF) with LAIR clay music ensemble: Andzar Agung Fauzan, Pipin Muhammad Kaspin, Tedi Nurmanto, Kiki Rasmadi Permana, Tamyiz Noor Ramadhan, and Ika Yuliana
Terrakota Route
Performance – In person
Date: March 26, 2022 | Time: 11:00am
Location: Small Arms Inspection Building
Eric-Paul Riege
2001-2011, kwe’é díí shighan ńt’ę́ę́, i wonder what this Key opens now?
Durational Performance – In person
Date: March 27, 2022 | Time: 10:00am to 6:00pm
Location: Small Arms Inspection Building
Emily Johnson
Being Future Beings
Performance – In person
Date: March 27, 2022 | Time: 4:00pm
Location: MOCA Toronto
Giselle Dias, Sandy Hudson, and Syrus Marcus Ware
Abolition Is Love: How to Live Abolition in Everyday Life
Workshop – In person
Date: April 2, 2022 | Time: 1:00–3:00pm
Location: Small Arms Inspection Building
April Programs
Babaylans and Encanadores: A Conversation with Paul Pfeiffer, Stephanie Comilang, and Simon Speiser
Artists Talk – Online
Date: April 8, 2022 | Time: 11:00 am
C Magazine Workshops with Erika DeFrietas, Jess Dobkin, and Francisco-Fernando Granados
Workshop – In person
Date: April 8, 22, 29, 2022 | Time: 4:30 – 7:30pm
Location: 72 Perth Avenue
Storytelling Sessions with
Jeffrey Canton, Melissa Davidson, Emily DiCarlo, lwrds duniam, Nicole Markland
Exhibition walkthroughs – In person
Date: Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays in April, May, and June | Time: see website for further details
Locations: 72 Perth Avenue | Small Arms Inspection Building | 5 Lower Jarvis | Arsenal Contemporary Art
Water, Kinship, Belief
Edited by Tairone Bastien, Candice Hopkins, and Katie Lawson
Co-published by the Toronto Biennial of Art and Art Metropole
Publication date: April 2022. Available for pre-order now at this link. Available to purchase at: 72 Perth Avenue – Art Metropole bookshop; Small Arms Inspection Building; 5 Lower Jarvis Street; Arsenal Contemporary Art; Mercer Union and Textile Museum of Canada.
For more information, visit: https://torontobiennial.org/
