Born in Trinidad and raised in Toronto, artist Denyse Thomasos (1964-2012) left an indelible mark on contemporary painting. When most painters of her generation were forsaking abstract language, she embraced it.

A twenty-foot-wide painting by one of the world’s most acclaimed artists is on view at the AGO for just a few more days.

Taking over Level 5 of the AGO is I AM HERE: Home Movies and Everyday Masterpieces

A new group exhibition at Toronto media arts centre Trinity Square Video explores the idea of the Black archive, speculating about different forms it could embody. Featuring a hybrid of works in both physical and digital mediums, BLACK_BOX invites visitors on a unique journey through virtual reality.

Canadian contemporary artists Stephen Andrews and Andy Fabo have been friends for 30-plus years. The two shared a Toronto studio space in the late 1980s, along with Fabo’s late partner Michael Balser, closely witnessing the evolution of each other’s art practice. Their bonds and shared experiences run much deeper than the art world: they both survived the AIDS pandemic of the 1980s and ‘90s, after contracting HIV and tragically losing their respective partners to the disease.  

When portrait photographer Jorian Charlton steps behind the camera, she’s driven by intuition. The minute details of her photoshoots are rarely planned, but rather realized and embraced as they form organically – an approach that has helped define her striking style of medium format film portraiture.     

In 1968, The Beatles released their ninth studio album, a self-titled double LP, better known as The White Album. Widely regarded as one of the bands’ best and one of the greatest albums of all time, it clocks in at over 90 minutes and includes instantly recognizable songs such as Dear Prudence, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Blackbird and more. Its album sleeve is intentionally understated – stark, plain white, the first pressings embossed with the band’s name and a serial number.

Toronto-based filmmaker Esery Mondesir’s work is an exploration of the Haitian Diaspora. He combs through personal archives, institutional collections, music and oral histories to highlight unique connections between descendants of Haiti, spanning multiple regions and generations. His new AGO exhibition, Esery Mondesir: We Have Found Each Other, centres the cultural and migratory relationship between Haiti and Cuba.  

Last February, thanks to the generosity of the Canada Council’s 2021 York Wilson Endowment Award, the AGO welcomed to its Collection two recent works by celebrated, transdisciplinary Anishinaabe artist Maria Hupfield. Through her sculptural works, performances and film installations, the artist aims to make space for Indigenous histories and bodies, repurposing everyday materials and activating the works with her own body. 

Art imitates life, but in the case of multi-instrumentalist musician and producer Moshe Fisher-Rozenberg (Memory Pearl), art imitates art. For his 2020 album, Music for 7 Paintings, Fisher-Rozenberg created auditory responses to seven works of abstract expressionism he encountered in galleries throughout North America.