The Toronto Biennial of Art (TBA) today announces the curatorial framework, participating artists, and exhibition sites for its fourth edition, on view from September 26 through December 20, 2026. Led by Curator Allison Glenn, under the continued direction of TBA Executive Director Patrizia Libralato, the 2026 iteration brings together over 30 artists and collectives
from Canada and around the world.
Titled Things Fall Apart, the Biennial is shaped by Glenn’s research-driven and site-responsive approach. TBA 2026 centres on artists whose practices engage rupture as a generative force, reconsidering histories, geographies, and systems that shape contemporary life while proposing new ways of understanding the present. For the first time, the Biennial will extend beyond the Greater Toronto Area through a series of artist projects and institutional collaborations across North America.
Having worked in dialogue with a newly established National Curatorial Advisory, composed of six curators from leading institutions across Canada, Glenn has developed critical insight into regional contexts and artist practices nationwide, reinforcing TBA’s commitment to building an international platform for Canadian artists rooted in diverse local perspectives.
“With the announcement of our 2026 curatorial theme and artist list comes an exciting milestone for the 2026 Toronto Biennial of Art,” states Patrizia Libralato, Founder and Executive Director. “As we introduce this year’s project, we expand outward as Canada’s biennial, reflecting the unique identity of Toronto by bringing together voices from across Canada and around the world. TBA 2026 sees us deepening existing partnerships, cultivating new ones, extending artist projects beyond the Toronto region, and bringing Allison Glenn’s thoughtful vision to life. We are proud to facilitate dialogue at a time when so much feels uncertain, reaffirming our shared commitment to access, cultural vitality, and a recognition that contemporary art is not peripheral to public life, but central to it.”
Title and Curatorial Framework: Things Fall Apart
Things Fall Apart draws upon the enduring resonance of the eponymous phrase across literature, music, and cultural discourse as a way of marking periods of political and social transformation.
From Chinua Achebe’s landmark 1958 novel—whose title originates from W.B. Yeats’s 1921 poem The Second Coming—to its rearticulation in The Roots’ fourth studio album, the phrase signals fractured moments that reverberate across time and geographies. Unfolding as an exhibition grounded in ideas of syncopation and rupture, Things Fall Apart positions these conditions not as moments of collapse, but as sites of possibility. Water, which was introduced as part of the curatorial direction for the first edition of TBA, emerges as a central throughline, functioning as material, methodology, and connective infrastructure. Anchored in the geographies of the Great Lakes region, the Biennial traces expansive yet interconnected relationships between global waterways—from the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean archipelago to the Persian Gulf and beyond— foregrounding how histories of migration, trade, extraction, and resistance continue to shape contemporary conditions.
“The 2026 Toronto Biennial of Art is an invitation to view the Great Lakes, and global waterways, as a confluence,” says Curator Allison Glenn. “Growing up in nearby Detroit deeply informed my understanding of how water, as both a physical resource and a historical witness, connects distant geographies through shared, fluid systems. The expansion of the Biennial footprint across international borders is driven by this curatorial frame and a cohort of artists and collaborators whose work is profoundly site-responsive, connecting to histories and moments of rupture across vast waterways.
The opportunity to work in consultation with the National Curatorial Advisory, and to travel across Canada, provided critical insight into the country’s diverse landscapes and artistic practices. I meet this moment with gratitude for the opportunity to stay nimble and adaptive, building a Biennial that honours local histories while navigating the vast currents of our contemporary world.”
Artists and Commissions
TBA 2026 will feature over 30 artists and collectives, including 12 Canadian and 22 international participants from across the U.S., the Caribbean, South America, Europe, Africa, the SWANA region (Southwest Asia and North Africa), and South and Southeast Asia. The exhibition includes 17 newly commissioned works, many realized as site-responsive projects in dialogue with Toronto’s urban fabric and surrounding regions.
Extended Footprint & Institutional Collaborations
For the first time in 2026, TBA will introduce a new model of collaboration that extends beyond Toronto through a series of artist-driven projects developed and presented in partnership with institutions in other cities. Various new commissions will unfold across multiple locations—responding to each site’s social, cultural, and geographic context. Notably, participating artists Céline Semaan and Jean-Marc Bullet’s work spans sites in Toronto, Detroit, St. Louis, Medina, Nyack, and St. Joseph. Things Fall Apart will include simultaneous presentations of artist-led projects at the Anchorage Museum (Anchorage, AK,
USA) and at Times Square Arts’ Midnight Moment program (New York, NY, USA), introducing a new model of collaboration that extends beyond Toronto for the first time, developed through Glenn’s curatorial vision and presented in partnership with international institutions.
These collaborations involve shared commissioning, production, and presentation, with partner organizations contributing local knowledge, audiences, and infrastructure. TBA supports artists in developing projects that are context-responsive and multi-sited, shaped through ongoing exchange between Toronto and each partner location.
Public Programs
Throughout its run, TBA 2026 will offer dynamic public and learning programs and artist-led initiatives that extend the exhibition’s research across the city. Opening weekend will feature a series of experiential performances. In October 2026, a three-day convening will bring together artists, curators, and participants to engage with Toronto’s distinct contexts and the ideas underpinning the Biennial. Learning initiatives will include a new series of Mobile Arts Curriculum tools (developed in
collaboration with participating artists) as well as Storytelling sessions led by local multidisciplinary artists and educators.
New Publication
The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue, Things Fall Apart: Notes on Rupture, which expands on the curatorial and artistic positions of TBA 2026. The publication features a major curatorial essay by Glenn, conversations with key artists and collaborators, and artist spreads authored by partner venues curators, the National Curatorial Advisory and guest writers.
Designed by House9 (Montréal), the publication is co-published with Goose Lane Editions and the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, with the Aga Khan Museum as a contributing publisher.