Toronto Biennial of Art: Precarious Joys

Precarious Joys, the third edition of the Toronto Biennial of Art (the Biennial/TBA), features 55+ exhibition and programming artists from diverse geographies and generations, working across various disciplines. From September 21 to December 1, 2024, TBA offers 10 weeks of free contemporary art at 11 unique locations across Toronto.

The exhibition, Precarious Joys, explores the emotional climate of our times, acknowledging
vulnerability and grief while emphasizing the importance of passion and beauty in driving social change. In making this exhibition, co-curators Dominique Fontaine and Miguel A. López, have been engaged in conversations and active listening traversing national and international landscapes and numerous artists’ studios. The exhibited works address the various layers that define life in Toronto while reflecting broader social and political structures. Organized around open dialogues and poetic connections, these works together create sparks that ignite a fire amidst the fragility of existence.

In their curatorial statement Fontaine and López write:

For the third edition of the Toronto Biennial of Art (TBA), titled Precarious Joys, we have been immersed in dialogues and active listening, a crucial element in our curatorial journey traversing national and international landscapes, numerous artist studios, and art encounters in Toronto, throughout Canada, and beyond. Our interactions have traced connections between artistic creations reflecting social and ecological imperatives, resulting in us identifying key directives drawn from the artists’ endeavours: “Joy,” “Precarious,” “Home,” “Polyphony,” “Solace,” and “Coded” are terms that encapsulate how TBA artists’ practices amplify political consciousness and reassert the power of aesthetics in shaping collective existence.

Some of the presented artworks address the various layers of history that define life in Toronto, while others reflect broader social and political structures of inequality and power under global neoliberal governance. Key issues that resonate across the exhibition include environmental justice, sovereignty, self-representation, belonging and migration, land dispossession, collective memory, feminist genealogies, diasporic sonic cultures, sacred plant wisdom, weaving as spiritual listening, resistance and resilience, ancestorship, and queer worldmaking. Rather than presenting a single theoretical assertion, however, Precarious Joys is organized around open dialogues and poetic connections. Together, these many works will conjure sparks that light a fire amidst the fragility of existence.

The Toronto Biennial of Art is a ten-week event every two years. The Biennial commissions artists to create new works for a city-wide exhibition in dialogue with Toronto’s diverse local contexts. Year-round public and learning programs bridge Biennials and invite intergenerational audiences to explore the ideas that inspire our events. Building upon past editions and offering new ways of seeing and listening, each Biennial connects people to spark meaningful dialogues and imagine new futures.

Artists of this year’s edition include artists Cristina Flores Pescorán, Naomi Gallarco Rincón and Tessa Mars.

Please find the full artist list here.