The visual art exhibits to see in Toronto right now

This idea of urban mythmaking is central to the works of Sybil Goldstein, the late Canadian artist whose drawings and paintings are now on display in a beguiling new exhibit at Koffler Arts. In “Urban Myths,” her posthumous retrospective curated by David Liss, Goldstein seemingly rewrites the myths that underpin the city of Toronto. Among her expressionistic cityscapes, you won’t find depictions of well-known landmarks. No City Hall. No Toronto Islands. No CN Tower, with the Rogers Centre standing idly beside it. Goldstein was never interested it seems in retelling — and perpetuating — the same myths and stories that have been told so many times before. Instead, her work mythicizes the mundane, elevating the quotidian pulse of the city. Until March 1 at Koffler Arts — Youngplace, 180 Shaw St. 

Read Joshua Chong’s full review of “Urban Myths.”

Murderers Bar

Lucy Raven’s 41-minute video exhibition is, at its heart, a sly and thought-provoking study of Icarian folly, capturing the dam removal project along the Klamath River, the largest “undamming” of its kind in North American history. The removal of the four hydroelectric dams, which concluded in 2024, was the result of a decades-long campaign by local Native American tribes and environmentalists, who argued the century-old structures had decimated local fish populations and also upended the surrounding ecosystems. In this piece, Raven suggests that the natural world is far stronger than we, as humans, can ever comprehend. Tamper with it — or try to tame it for our advantage — and we are destined to fail. Because nature always wins. Until March 22 at the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, 231 Queens Quay W.

Read Joshua Chong’s full review of “Murderers Bar.”

Uncertain Ground 

Indonesia, the land of Linda Rotua Sormin’s ancestors, the Batak people, is an archipelago of tempestuous volcanoes. So it’s fitting that her new exhibition is a ravishing ode to her family that blends memory and myth, and features a hulking volcano at its centre. In this immersive installation, that volcanic beast takes on a character of its own. It’s a symbol of chaos, change, flux. It’s also a metaphor, representing the stories of the artist’s Batak ancestors, whose lives were upended by the arrival of Dutch colonists in the early 17th century. “Uncertain Ground” is like a surrealist dreamscape, striving to seek order out of disorder, certainty out of uncertainty. It evokes those feelings of wistful longing we all have at times, of trying to make sense of a distant past that’s slowly slipping away. Until April 12 at the Gardiner Museum, 111 Queen’s Park. 

Read Joshua Chong’s full review of “Uncertain Ground.” 

Collective Visions: Celebrating 25 Years of Photography

This new exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the museum’s photography department, offers a glimpse at the staggering breadth and quality of the AGO’s collection. The show is set up in a way that provokes reflection: the 94 works were each chosen by different individuals (including fellow artists, curators, arts scholars and collectors), who picked a photograph in response to the previous selection. The result is an exhibit in which each piece is connected in some way to one that follows — in mood, theme, subject or style. Follow along with the exhibition guide to read each participant’s explanation behind their selection. Or, like me, you can just peruse the gallery and try to find the connections between all the pieces. Until May 10 at the Art Gallery of Ontario, 317 Dundas St. W. 

No Limits

When Ranbir Sidhu was a child, his father put an architect’s drawing board in his bedroom. It was a gesture that would echo in the sculptures, jewelry and furniture Sidhu made decades later — work marked by an architectural instinct for structure. Sidhu’s first museum show, “No Limits,” brings together many of his thematic interests and his command of steel and marble. The centrepiece is “Asteroid 3033 X1,” a monumental crystalline sculpture that looks as if a meteor struck the ROM’s Michael Lee-Chin Crystal and fused with it. In his hands, steel and marble become Janus-like. They look back to the traditions of his Sikh heritage while imagining a future shaped by space travel. Until Jan. 3, 2027 at the Art Gallery of Ontario, 317 Dundas St. W.

Read Brandon Kaufman’s full feature on “No Limits.”