Art Toronto returns to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and you don’t want to miss it

Canada’s art fair, ArtTO, is returning to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre from October 29th to the 31st, marking the first sizeable coast-to-coast art event since the pandemic. With over 60+ galleries from around the globe, a brand new floor plan including an impressive sculpture garden, world-class online programming and hundreds of art works for sale, the 22nd annual fair is reanimated. In addition to the in-person fair, collectors can virtually visit Art Toronto through a new online platform powered by Artland running from October 29th to November 7th. The hybrid model allows visitors from everywhere to explore the best works in Canada. 

Art Toronto, presented by RBC, has a robust history of presenting some of the top Canadian artists first and this year, galleries are putting indigenous artists at the forefront. With over 30% of artworks from Indigenous identifying artists and ⅓ of galleries presenting indigenous work, including five galleries completely dedicated to First Nations artists, the market is suggesting a new wave of artists is here.  

Here are our top artists to check out in-person and online.

Jason Baerg

Fazakas will present Oyasiwewina, The Law (2021), a cut canvas work suspended on a step ladder to suggest a teepee, by two-spirit Cree Métis artist Jason Baerg. Baerg will also participate in a panel ‘Decolonizing Museums and Collections’ alongside Dr. Patricia Marroquin Norby, Curator of Native American Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, as part of the fair’s talks programme.

Chief Beau Dick

Ceremonial/Art will show Chief Beau Dick’s sculpture Pookmis (2002), a mask carving made with red cedar, acrylic, horsehair, feathers and cotton. The artist and activist passed away in 2017.

Caroline Monnet 

Blouin Division will present Algonquin multidisciplinary artist Caroline Monnet. Monnet recently debuted her first featured film, Bootlegger, this October after presenting her first solo exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts last spring. 

Rebecca Belmore 

Anishinaabe artist Rebecca Belmore’s work in performance, installation, photography and video addresses the politics of representation. Her images of provocation, subtle intervention and resistance are rooted in the tragic history of native cultures in North America. 

Maria Hupfield 

Anishinaabe transdisciplinary artist, Maria Hupfield is a 2020–22 inaugural Borderlands Fellow for her project Breaking Protocol at the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at the New School, New York and the Center for the Imagination in the Borderlands at Arizona State University, Tempe. Hupfield was awarded the Hnatyshyn Foundation Visual Arts Award in 2018. 

The online programme will include a panel discussion anticipating the opening of the New Museum’s fifth triennial, ‘Soft Water Hard Stone,’ in New York City on October 28th. New Museum curator Margot Norton will discuss the show with participating Canadian artists Nadia Belerique, Laurie Kang and Jeneen Frei Njootli.

Also occurring online is the exhibition ‘As We Rise,’ which will bring together 100 photographs by Black artists worldwide. The works come from The Wedge Collection, which was established by dentist Dr. Kenneth Montague in 1997.

Click here to book tickets to explore the Art Toronto fair both in-person and online from October 29th to November 7th.  

In partnership with the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Art Toronto will implement all applicable COVID-19 safety procedures recommended by the Province of Ontario, including following the province’s vaccine passport system, timed entry, mandatory face masks, wider aisles to accommodate social distancing, digital ticketing, and carefully coordinated crowd flow. A complete overview of Art Toronto’s health and safety measures is available here.