Heffel Fine Art Auction House will hold its Spring Auction on May 21, 2026, featuring two sessions: Post-War & Contemporary Art and Old Master, Impressionist, & Modern Art. The sale, held in Toronto and online, includes works by Canadian masters such as Alex Colville, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Guido Molinari, and E.J. Hughes, with top estimates reaching up to $1.75 million CAD for Hughes' 'Coastal Boats Near Sidney, BC'.
Digital art giants Artnet and Artsy have implemented significant layoffs following their recent merger under the investment firm Beowolff Capital. The cuts, which occurred on April 16, impacted dozens of employees across both organizations, including senior editorial staff such as Sarah Cascone and Eileen Kinsella. The restructuring follows a reported 12% revenue decline for Artnet in early 2025 and involves the shutdown of Artnet's German entity as the two companies consolidate into a single team led by CEO Jeffrey Yin.
The Toronto Biennial of Art has announced the details for its fourth edition, titled "Things Fall Apart," scheduled to run from September 26 to December 20. Curated by Allison Glenn, the exhibition will feature 30 artists and collectives, including Kent Monkman, Rebecca Belmore, and Dawoud Bey, with a heavy emphasis on new commissions. For the first time, the biennial is expanding its footprint beyond the Greater Toronto Area to include partnerships with institutions across Canada and international sites like Times Square in New York and the Anchorage Museum in Alaska.
The Dallas Museum of Art acquired six works from the 2026 Dallas Art Fair, held April 16–19 at the Fashion Industry Gallery in the Dallas Arts District. The acquisitions, made possible by the Dallas Art Fair Foundation + Dallas Museum of Art Acquisition Fund, include pieces by Nicole Eisenman, Gloria Klein, Caroline Monnet, Hasani Sahlehe, and Raymond Saunders. Selections were made by DMA curators including Dr. Vivian Li, Ade Omotosho, Dr. Emily Friedman, Dr. Nicole R. Myers, and director Brian Ferriso. This marks the tenth year of the fund, which has added 78 works to the museum's permanent collection since 2016 through over $1 million in donations.
A focused exhibition at Art Metropole in Toronto presents a selection of mail art submissions by the late transgressive artist Genesis Breyer P-Orridge to the Canadian collective General Idea in the 1970s. Drawn from the National Gallery of Canada's collection, the show features letters, collages, photos, and ephemera that capture P-Orridge's early, boundary-pushing work with collectives like COUM Transmissions and Throbbing Gristle.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has unveiled its new David Geffen Galleries, featuring an unconventional open-plan design that encourages non-linear exploration. The building's layout, which eschews traditional chronological narratives in favor of free-floating associations, has sparked debate among critics regarding its navigability and the restoration of key works like Alexander Calder’s "Three Quintains (Hello Girls)."
The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery in Toronto is hosting 'Colourful Parachutes: Imagining Alternative Futures Through the Power of Play,' a group exhibition that centers children as active participants rather than passive observers. Curated by Frances Loeffler, the show features interactive works by artists including Temitayo Ogunbiyi, Leisure (Meredith Carruthers and Susannah Wesley), Claire Greenshaw, Rivane Neuenschwander, Harold Offeh, Sassa Linklater, Tobias Linklater, and Robin Rhode, with installations that invite climbing, drawing, playing, and touching. The exhibition draws inspiration from a 1968 show at Moderna Museet in Stockholm that transformed the museum into an adventure playground.
Philadelphia is set to launch a new contemporary art fair called Elsewhere on June 4, organized by Megan Galardi, founder of Blah Blah Gallery. The fair will take over the Yowie Hotel, a pair of 1900s rowhouses, featuring 26 galleries from cities including Los Angeles, Toronto, and London. Booth prices are kept low—around $3,000 for the largest rooms—and some exhibitors can sleep in their spaces to reduce costs. Participating galleries include Harlesden High Street, DARLA, and Blah Blah Gallery, with artists such as Patricia Renee’ Thomas, Emmanuel Massillon, and Qualeasha Wood. The fair also includes panels, DJ sets, reciprocal museum tours, and VIP studio visits.
Toronto's visual arts landscape is highlighted as a premier destination for travelers, featuring a mix of massive institutional collections and specialized local galleries. Key attractions include the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), known for its vast natural history and ancient civilization galleries, and the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), which houses over 120,000 works ranging from Renaissance masterpieces to contemporary installations like Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room.
The Toronto Biennial of Art has unveiled the artist list and thematic framework for its 2026 edition, titled "Things Fall Apart." Curated by Allison Glenn, the exhibition will feature over 30 artists and collectives, including 17 new commissions that explore themes of syncopation, rupture, and the connective power of global waterways. For the first time, the biennial will expand its physical footprint beyond the Greater Toronto Area to include site-responsive projects in Detroit, New York, and Anchorage.
Curator Naz Cuguoğlu argues in an opinion essay that museums should embrace the ethos of rave culture to become more welcoming and inclusive spaces, suggesting they can foster new forms of belonging. The article also covers several other art stories, including the discovery of pre-Hispanic rock art in Mexico that led to the rerouting of a train line, an exhibition of Genesis P-Orridge's mail art in Toronto, and artist Jean Shin's memorial project at Green-Wood Cemetery.
The Contact Photography Festival, Canada's largest photography event, opens Friday in Toronto with over 160 exhibitions across eclectic venues including artist-run centers, commercial galleries, cafes, and a laundromat. Highlights include a towering portrait by Haitian-born artist Thandiwe Muriu on Spadina Ave., and a multi-site exhibition by Turner Prize-nominee Sin Wai Kin, featuring billboards and a two-channel video titled 'The Time of Our Lives.' The festival lost its long-time lead sponsor Scotiabank in 2024, resulting in a reduced budget and less public programming, but organizers remain committed to championing lens-based art.
Cowley Abbott Fine Art, a Toronto-based auction house, has opened its first permanent western Canada gallery in Calgary's East Village. The new space launches with a three-day public preview of museum-quality artworks heading to its Spring Live Auction on May 27 at the Globe and Mail Centre in Toronto. Highlights include rare works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vincent van Gogh, Emily Carr, and members of the Group of Seven such as Lawren Harris and A.Y. Jackson. Among the standout pieces is Emily Carr's 1936 canvas "Wind," estimated at $500,000 to $700,000, and a Lawren Harris painting valued similarly. The gallery aims to attract both collectors and casual visitors, with Peter Ohler, Western Canada Representative and Director of Private Sales, emphasizing that the space is open to anyone interested in art.
John Riepenhoff's solo exhibition "Out of Mind" is on view at Cooper Cole in Toronto from March 28 to May 2, 2026. The presentation includes 80 images documenting the show, with press release, checklist, and venue details available through the gallery's website and the Contemporary Art Library.
The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery in Toronto is hosting a free opening party on April 24 for its new exhibition, 'Colourful Parachutes: Imagining Alternative Futures Through the Power of Play.' The exhibition features interactive installations by ten international artists, including Temitayo Ogunbiyi, Leisure, Robin Rhode, and Claire Greenshaw, designed to be touched, climbed on, and altered by visitors.
Six Canadian artists have been awarded the 2026 Rewilding Arts Prize, established in 2023 by the David Suzuki Foundation and Rewilding Magazine. The winners include Nicole McDonald-Fournier, whose project EmballeToi! repurposes old winter coats as plant-growing pots, and the Montreal/Toronto duo Masumi Rodriguez and Elena Kirby, who run community papermaking workshops using invasive plant species. The prize awards $2,000 to each artist and plans to feature their work in a future exhibition, following the inaugural winners' show at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa.
The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Toronto presents "Shokkan," an exhibition curated by Akiko Takesue that explores the Japanese concept of touch in art. Despite the challenge of displaying tactile experiences behind glass, the show succeeds by featuring historic Japanese works—such as kimonos, tea bowls, ukiyo-e prints, and netsuke—alongside contemporary pieces by artists like Issey Miyake, Tabaimo, Makiko Hattori, and Emma Nishimura. Interactive stations allow visitors to handle replicas and less valuable objects, including samurai swords, scrolls, and netsuke, to physically engage with the theme.
The Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa, Ontario, will launch its summer exhibition season on June 13, 2026, featuring five new displays. The season includes solo shows by artists Stephen Andrews, Oliver Husain, and Austin Henderson. Andrews presents 'The sum of the parts,' a display of 125 drawings examining media coverage of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Husain offers an immersive video installation titled 'I ♥ Snail,' exploring the history of IMAX cinema. Henderson, the RBC emerging artist in residence, debuts works investigating queer history and the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Canada through his family history. A free public event with curator remarks, artist-led tours, and a complimentary shuttle from OCAD University in Toronto will mark the opening.
Adrienna Matzeg’s solo exhibition "After Hours" at Abbozzo Gallery in Toronto presents embroidered textile works inspired by her late-night explorations of Kyoto, Tokyo, and Seoul during a July 2025 trip. The pieces capture quiet, illuminated scenes of convenience stores, markets, and roadside attractions, rendered on black linen with a diaristic, snapshot-like quality.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's 2026 Costume Institute exhibition, titled "Costume Art," will feature special mannequins with mirrored steel heads created by Toronto-born, Dubai-based artist Samar Hejazi. The mannequins, designed in collaboration with Curator in Charge Andrew Bolton, represent differently sized and abled bodies and replace traditional faces with reflective surfaces to disrupt the conventional presentation of fashion. Hejazi attended the Met Gala wearing a gown by Palestinian designer Zaid Farouki and described the project as a meaningful collaboration aimed at fostering empathy and self-reflection.
Hotel Confidential is a new contemporary art exhibition hosted at the Royal Hotel in Picton, Ontario, featuring original projects by 16 artists. The show utilizes the hotel's Annex Building to display site-specific installations, such as a collection of vintage suitcases containing miniature dioramas and various architectural interventions. Co-curated by Stacey Sproule and Christina Zeidler, the event aims to bridge the gap between the region's luxury tourism industry and its dense local artist community.
The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery in Toronto has opened a new interactive exhibition titled "Colourful Parachutes: Imagining Alternative Futures Through the Power of Play," running until September 7. The show features 10 international and local artists and breaks the traditional gallery rule of "do not touch" by inviting visitors to play, climb, and alter the artworks. Curated with children in mind, the exhibition includes works like Harold Offeh's immersive installation "The Mothership Collective 2.0," which uses music, video, and interactive elements to encourage imaginative thinking about the future.
The Ontario provincial government has announced a $35 million investment over two years to support the Art Gallery of Ontario's (AGO) expansion project, the Dani Reiss Modern and Contemporary Gallery. The funding will create at least 13 new galleries across five floors, adding 40,000 square feet of space and increasing display area by 30%. Construction is expected to be complete by fall 2027, enabling the AGO to welcome up to 120,000 additional visitors annually. This provincial contribution supplements a $35 million lead gift from Dani Reiss, $25 million from the Government of Canada, and other private donations.
The Sadequain Art Exhibition opened on Monday in Mississauga, Canada, for a three-day event celebrating Pakistan’s cultural heritage. Organized by the Sadequain Foundation USA in collaboration with media partners, the exhibition was inaugurated by Muhammad Saleem Khan and features Islamic calligraphy, drawings, paintings, Urdu poetry, and wall carvings by the renowned artist Syed Sadequain Ahmed Naqvi. Attendees included Ontario MPP Sheref Sabawy and participants from the Aga Khan Academy Toronto.
WKP Kennedy Gallery in North Bay, Ontario, has launched an open call for its 2026 Curatorial Mentorship Program, which provides emerging artists with a solo exhibition, mentorship, and professional development support. The program previously supported interdisciplinary artist Gabriel George, who went on to win 'First in Show' at Toronto's Artist Project art fair after his first solo show at the gallery. Applications are open until June 29, with the recipient notified on July 7.
The Power Plant Gallery in Toronto is hosting an art exhibition, as reported in a brief video segment. The coverage focuses on the exhibition's opening or ongoing presentation at the contemporary art venue.
A three-day Sadeqain Art Exhibition has opened in Mississauga, Canada, inaugurated by Pakistan’s High Commissioner Muhammad Saleem Khan. Organized by the Sadeqain Foundation with local and media partners, the exhibition showcases the work of renowned Pakistani artist Syed Sadeqain Ahmed Naqvi (1930–1987), featuring Islamic calligraphy, paintings, drawings, wall carvings, and Urdu poetry. The event aims to introduce his artistic legacy to a wider international audience and is expected to attract art experts, students, and cultural enthusiasts.
Pakistan’s High Commission in Canada launched a three-day art exhibition in Mississauga celebrating the legacy of renowned artist Syed Sadequain Ahmed Naqvi. Inaugurated by High Commissioner Muhammad Saleem, the exhibition features Sadequain’s paintings, murals, drawings, and Urdu poetry, organized by the Sadequain Foundation with local partners. Attendees include students from the Aga Khan Foundation Academy Toronto, and scholar Ashfaq Hussain will deliver a talk on the artist’s multifaceted legacy.