The Toronto Biennial of Art has selected Allison Glenn, a closely watched curator, to organize its fourth edition, scheduled to run September to December 2026.
Over the past 15 years, Glenn has held a series of high-profile biennial and institutional appointments as well as curating major exhibitions. Among her most high-profile is the 2021 show “Promise, Witness, Remembrance,” which opened at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky. Dedicated to the life of Breonna Taylor, the exhibition featured the work of some 20 artists, including Amy Sherald, Nari Ward, Bethany Collins, and Glenn Ligon. Glenn has also been a co-curator of the 2023 Counterpublic triennial in St. Louis and as a curatorial associate for New Orleans’s Prospect.4 triennial in 2018.
On the institutional side, she has previously served as senior curator at the Public Art Fund in New York and associate curator of contemporary art at Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas, where she helped shape how the museum presents outdoor sculpture across its 120-acre campus. She is currently the artistic director of the Shepherd, a cultural arts center in Detroit that is housed in a Romanesque-style church dating to the early 20th century.
“Allison has a strong track record of collaborating with artists to develop ambitious ideas and realize transformative projects,” Toronto Biennial founder and executive director Patrizia Libralato said in statement. “She has focused on art in public spaces as a means to connect intergenerational audiences with impactful and accessible contemporary art. Her thoughtful approach, as well as her deep interest in Canada having grown up in nearby Detroit, will no doubt allow her to seamlessly work with artists and partners from across the country as well as internationally to create a powerful Biennial for Toronto.”
Glenn was selected as the biennial’s 2026 curator by a six-person committee that includes three past Toronto Biennial curators Candice Hopkins, Dominique Fontaine, and Miguel A. López, as well as Elvira Dyangani Ose, the director of the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, and artists Camille Usher and Léuli Eshrāghi.
In addition to her appoint, the Toronto Biennial also announced the formation of a National Curatorial Advisory that will consist of five curators from different Canadian institutions and will advise Glenn. They are David Diviney, chief curator at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax; Eva Respini, deputy director and director of curatorial programs at the Vancouver Art Gallery; Heather Igloliorte, an independent curator and professor of visual arts at the University of Victoria; Léuli Eshrāghi, curator of Indigenous practices at the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal; and Michelle Jacques, director of exhibitions and collections and chief curator at Remai Modern in Saskatoon.
In a statement, Glenn said, “Toronto is one of the most diverse cities in the world and is located on the Great Lakes waterway—a system that contains 20% of the world’s freshwater. This will undoubtedly impact the curatorial framework. I am honoured to be invited to consider a city so close to home, and to learn from the vast histories of the region while working closely with the brilliant members of the National Curatorial Advisory, enthusiastic TBA team, and dedicated partners of the 2026 Toronto Biennial of Art.”
Credit: ArtNews
