Five must-visit shows and exhibitions at galleries across Canada this coming year.
Jana Sterbak: Dimensions of Intimacy at the Esker Foundation in Calgary
The Esker Foundation in Calgary has just confirmed that it will hold an exhibition devoted to the work of Montreal artist Jana Sterbak, who has exhibited infrequently outside Quebec in recent years. This should be the most anticipated retrospective of any living Canadian artist next year – and a chance to revisit the cultural power of the 1980s and 1990s. Dimensions of Intimacy promises to be the first major retrospective of the artist’s work since 1991 when Vanitas: Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorectic, a gown sewn from 25 kilos of raw flank steak, was shown at the National Gallery of Canada and caused a scandal. The Calgary show will include both Vanitas (originally created in 1987 and now in the collection of the Pompidou Centre in Paris and Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minn.) and I Want You to Feel the Way I Do (1984-85), a wire mesh dress wrapped in a live electric wire. Sept. 20 to Dec. 21.
Joyce Wieland: Heart On at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto
The most anticipated retrospective of a historic Canadian artist is surely that of Joyce Wieland, who died in 1998. Known for her sensuality, feminism, Canadian nationalism and playful adoption of quilting techniques, Wieland was both a woman of her time, and one ahead of it. The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Art Gallery of Ontario are revisiting her five-decade career in Joyce Weiland: Heart On, a show featuring 100 artworks and newly restored films. In Montreal Feb. 8 to May 4; in Toronto June 21 to Jan. 4, 2026.
Joyce Wieland. Boat Tragedy, 1964.Art Gallery of Ontario/Supplied
Reinstallation of the decorative arts and design collection at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
The MMFA will unveil another major initiative next September, a new presentation of the institution’s impressive collection of decorative arts and design, covering everything from Sèvres porcelain to an Eames chair. The display in the renovated Liliane and David M. Stewart Pavilion will feature 900 of the 24,000 objects in the collection including the crowd-pleasing Sun, a large sculpture made of twisting yellow rays by the American glass artist Dale Chihuly, which will undergo significant conservation work and be moved indoors. The museum’s holdings include numerous other glass pieces, ceramics, textiles, jewellery and other metalwork, as well as important examples of European, American and Quebec furniture. Opening Sept. 5.
The Sun by Dale Chihuly.Terry Rishel/MMFA
Emmanuel Osahor: To dream of other places at the Power Plant, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto
In Toronto, the Power Plant gallery at Harbourfront will present the work of Emmanuel Osahor in an immersive display creating the effect of a night garden in which to view the Toronto artist’s lush gardenscapes. Osahor’s paintings, animated by his belief in the importance of nature and beauty to survival, are inspired by real and imaginary sites. The show, his first major solo exhibition in his hometown, will feature paintings, drawings, prints, ceramic sculptures and a site-specific photographic wallpaper. April 11 to Sept. 7.
Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto
The Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto starts the year on a sombre note. The ROM is the only Canadian stop for Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away., an exhibition examining the history and legacy of the Holocaust’s most identifiable site. The show, which includes survivor testimonies as well as 500 objects from the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in Poland, deals with Auschwitz as both a physical setting and a symbol. Jan. 10 to Sept. 1.
Uniform worn by Marian Kostuch, from Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away At the ROM.JOSE BAREA/Musealia
