The second edition of the Toronto Biennial of Art opened Saturday with a range of work that includes headliners like Judy Chicago and Brian Jungen.
The biennial, postponed last fall due to the pandemic, is titled What Water Knows, The Land Remembers and features free exhibitions and programs until June 5.
There are two main exhibition venues – 72 Perth Ave. in the Junction neighbourhood and the Small Arms Inspection Building, an old munitions factory in Mississauga – although some programming will occur at a handful of other sites.
The first edition, in 2019, focused on Toronto's shoreline on Lake Ontario, while this version builds on similar themes with the same curators and some of the same artists by moving upstream, "following the tributaries, above ground and hidden, which shape this place," organizers said.
"What Water Knows, The Land Remembers draws from polyphonic histories sedimented in and around Toronto, revealing entangled narratives and ecologies across time and space."
Some 70 artists from Canada and 17 other countries are participating, including Ghazaleh Avarzamani, Nadia Belerique, Jeffrey Gibson, Marguerite Humeau, Jatiwangi art Factory, Jumana Manna, Eduardo Navarro, Paul Pfeiffer, Eric-Paul Riege and Buhlebezwe Siwani.
American artist Judy Chicago, best known for The Dinner Party, will create a pyrotechnic smoke sculpture on June 4, a first for Canada. Sobey Art Award winner Brian Jungen, a Dane-Zaa artist, presents Plague Mask sculptures made from Nike Air Jordan sneakers. And Turner Prize winner Lawrence Abu Hamdan, a Jordanian artist, undertakes his first major Canadian commission, 45th Parallel.
The exhibition curators are Tairone Bastien, Candice Hopkins and Katie Lawson.
For information, visit torontobiennial.org.
Source: Toronto Biennial of Art
