Toronto Fall Calendar Highlights Ruin, Rebirth, And Art Across Canada And US

(MENAFN- USA Art News) Toronto's fall cultural calendar features themes of destruction, revival, and disruption, with events extending across Canada and into the United States. This season began with a conceptual art gesture, as former President Donald Trump reportedly renamed Lake Ontario“Lake America,” a change reflected on both Google Maps and Apple Maps, weeks before the official start of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and the Toronto Biennial of Art in September.

The summer art season in Toronto concluded with“Where Walls Meet Sky,” a group exhibition in the Little Portugal neighborhood. The show was held behind the facade of the former St. Anne's Anglican Church on Gladstone Avenue, which suffered a fire in June 2024. The church's dome collapsed, leading to the destruction of century-old murals by The Group of Seven, Canadian landscape artists known for their distinct North American Impressionism developed in the 1920s. While the front doors are now cemented for security, preserving the last remaining wall, 12 artists transformed the adjacent plot into a contemporary memorial. This installation included a functional oven, constructed from salvaged bricks, that baked fresh bread daily, offering a form of“secular communion.”

Near the former church is the Gladstone Hotel, a prominent art hotel in the city, which exhibits original works by over 40 regional artists throughout its premises, from the lobby to its loft suites. The hotel also offers multiple daily exhibition spaces, akin to the 21c Museum Hotels in the U.S. Current resident artists include textile artist Alissa McRonald, who spent the summer creating abstract puppets blending kitsch with theatrical elements, and collage artist Brandy Ryan, collecting guest ephemera for new works exploring what visitors leave behind.

The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) is showcasing“My '90s Rock Photographs” by Melissa Auf der Maur, a Montreal-born former guitarist for Hole and Smashing Pumpkins. The exhibition, running through June 2027, features candid snapshots from her career. Beyond this, the AGO also presents contemporary Italian works by filmmaker Diego Macron and“The Impressionist Revolution: Monet to Matisse,” on loan from the Dallas Museum of Art. This latter exhibition includes numerous smaller works by period artists, along with multiple pieces by Bonnard.

The Bata Shoe Museum offers“Rough & Ready: A History of the Cowboy Boot,” an exhibition exploring human footwear that includes items loaned by queer country singer Orville Peck and the granddaughter of rhinestone suitmaker Nudie Cohn. In October, the museum will debut“Brilliant: The Art of Beaded Footwear Around the World,” which will feature custom-made Dolce & Gabbana platforms worn by Madonna.

The Power Plant, a contemporary art space with free admission on the waterfront, will host its Power Ball in September, marking the return of its arts party fundraiser for the first time since before the Covid pandemic, with the theme“The Seven Year Itch.” New exhibitions open one month later, including“Fogo” by Los Angeles artist Sharon Lockhart, documenting her photo and film journey across the eastern island over the past four summers. This will run concurrently with“Owner of a Lonely Heart,” a multi-artist film program. Vancouver-born artist Zadie Xa's multimedia exhibition,“Moonlit Confessions Across Deep Sea Echoes: Your Ancestors Are Whales, and Earth Remembers Everything,” will feature 600 brass bells suspended from the ceiling in the shape of a conch shell, creating a“singing” installation.

One week after the Power Ball, the Art Museum at the University of Toronto will host the opening party for“Things Fall Apart,” the theme of this year's Toronto Biennial. This biennial focuses on“the geographies of the Great Lakes” and“rupture... as a tool of understanding the world.” Nuit Blanche follows on October 3, an all-night contemporary art celebration across the city.

In December,“Raptors: Fierce and Feathered” will open on December 9, 2026, at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM). This exhibition coincides with the 2027 NBA season and the Christmas season. Dinosaur skeletons have become a valuable commodity, with auction prices increasing from $30 million to over $50 million in the last six years, following a July sale at Sotheby's for a 12.5-foot T-Rex named Gus. The ROM also features“Psychedelics: Art. Culture. Science.,” an exhibition displaying wild mushrooms and the rock posters they influenced in the second half of the 20th century.

For those interested in connections between the U.S. and Canada, the newly opened Gordie Howe Bridge from Windsor to Detroit provides a link. This leads to Detroit Design Month, which this year included the second annual Season Art Fair, a spinoff of Detroit Art Week led by Amani Olu, owner of Periodicals magazine storefront. Season relocated from Michigan Central in Corktown to The Shepherd in Detroit's East Village. The Shepherd, which hosted Mickalene Thomas's show“Beneath the Moonlight” this summer, is another contemporary arts venue in a former church, the century-old Romanesque Church of the Annunciation. Its revitalization was spearheaded by real estate developer Anthony Curtis and his wife JJ, who also operate the Library Street Collective gallery downtown and rebranded the surrounding area as“Little Village.” The Curtises have been restoring dilapidated houses in the neighborhood and have opened the Tony Hawk-approved Charles McGee Memorial Park, honoring the late Detroit sculptor, and ALEO, a bed and breakfast and artist residency on The Shepherd's grounds.

Source: Observer Arts

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