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Opening Weekend: Toronto Biennial of Art 2026

Opening Party

Friday, September 25, 7pm–11pm
University of Toronto Art Centre
15 King’s College Circle

This is a ticketed event. For more information, visit the Toronto Biennial of Art’s website. 

Photo by Ryan Emberley, courtesy of the Toronto Biennial of Art.

Rebecca Belmore: Gichigami

Saturday, September 26, 12pm
University of Toronto Art Centre
15 King’s College Circle 

Rebecca Belmore’s new work, Gichigami, opens as a procession that moves from Queen’s Park to the University of Toronto, where it will remain on view as an installation at the Art Museum for the duration of the Biennial. 

Free and open to the public; registration is required.

Rebecca Belmore (b. 1960, Anishinaabe) creates sculpture, installation, video, photography and performance. Central to her work is the body in relation to history, place and Indigeneity. Recent monographic exhibitions include Turbulent Water, Griffith University, Brisbane; and Facing the Monumental, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. Recent major international exhibitions include the 2022 Whitney Biennial, 2019 Istanbul Biennial, and documenta 14. Belmore has been awarded the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts and the Gershon Iskowitz Prize, among many others. She holds honourary doctorates from Université Laval, Quebec City; Nova Scotia College of Art and Design; Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Vancouver; and Ontario College of Art & Design University, Toronto.

Rebecca Belmore, Flood (detail), 2025. Photograph, 1.4 × 3.86 m. Courtesy of the Toronto Biennial of Art.

Opening Remarks

Saturday, September 26, 1pm
7 Hart House Circle

Join us for the formal opening of the 2026 Toronto Biennial of Art, which will include remarks from TBA’s Executive Director, Patrizia Libralato; Curator, Allison Glenn; and Executive Director/Chief Curator of the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, Barbara Fischer.

Free and open to the public; no registration required.

Photo by Rebecca Tisdelle-Macias. Courtesy of Toronto Biennial of Art.

Raphaël Barontini: Konvwa libèté

Saturday, September 26, 1:30pm
Meeting point in front of Hart House
7 Hart House Circle

Join artist Raphaël Barontini for a celebratory, carnival-style street parade to the University of Toronto’s St. George campus. Blending percussion, indigo costumes, banners, and flags, this parade honours historical figures of anti-enslavement resistance while celebrating contemporary Caribbean traditions of emancipation.

Co-presented by the Art Museum with the Toronto Biennial of Art, the Toronto Caribbean Carnival, and Hart House.

Free and open to the public; registration is required.

Raphaël Barontini was born in 1984 in Saint-Denis (France). He lives and works in Paris. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and at the Hunter College of Art in New-York.

Barontini prioritizes challenging the historical canon surrounding cultures and territories marked by slavery or colonisation. His approach invites the exploration of new imaginaries and narratives enriched by a pluralistic history. His paintings, flags, banners, tapestries and ceremonial capes question the representation of power, its rituals, and its carnivalesque inversion. The medium of portrait being its main field of exploration.

Raphaël Barontini is represented by Mariane Ibrahim (Chicago, Paris, Mexico City).

Raphaël Barontini, Agwé & La Sirène, 2026. © Raphaël Barontini / ADAGP Paris / CARCC Ottawa 2026. Courtesy of Raphaël Barontini and Mariane Ibrahim (Chicago, Paris, Mexico City).

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