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Monday 12pm - 5pm Tuesday 12pm - 5pm Wednesday 12pm - 9pm Thursday 12pm - 5pm Friday 12pm - 5pm Saturday 12pm - 3pm

http://www.blackwoodgallery.ca/, http://twitter.com/the_blackwood

Blackwood Gallery, 3359 Mississauga Road North, University of Toronto, Mississauga, ON (2026)

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3359 Mississauga Road North, University Of Toronto

06/01/2026

We are pleased to announce a four-part program series in conversation with the lightbox exhibition, The Classroom, by Hicham Benohoud. Rooted in The Classroom is an invitation to enact alternative modes of learning amid educational austerity that erodes access, experimentation, and critical inquiry. Led by guest contributors whose research spans performance, anthropology, critical disability studies, and social justice education, this program animates reflexive, embodied, and community-sustaining pedagogies. Sessions will foreground culture-rooted practices and plural forms of knowledge-making, engaging choreography, accessibility, illustration, storytelling, dance, and photography as tools for shared learning and artmaking. As in Benohoud’s Classroom, learning will unfold through collective inquiry, dialogue, and play.

For our first event, Itshalit wit hatit, Lucy El-Sherif will bring together performance, movement, and public scholarship, to consider dabke as both cultural practice and embodied pedagogy. Stubbornly physical, communal, and linked to land and history, the Palestinian folk-dance, dabke, embodies synchronicity such that even though it is performed to bring people closer to Palestine, it also brings dabeekah (dabke dancers) closer to each other. Attending to dabeekah’s own theorizing reveals dabke as a form of Palestinian world-making on Palestinian terms, sustaining continuity under ongoing conditions of violence and deracination.

The 45-minute talk will be followed by a dabke performance by members of the Zaytouna Academy of Cultural Arts.

Wednesday, June 10th, 12-2pm at the Blackwood Gallery, 140 Kaneff. Visit the Blackwood website for program descriptions, contributor bios, and access information. Free to attend, snacks and refreshments provided. Register on Eventbrite: https://buff.ly/a05AdPI

Image credits: slide 1) Jose Miguel ‘Miggy' Esteban, CanAsian Dance and Toronto Dance Theatre EntryWaves Residency, 2024. Courtesy the artist. 2) Photo: Zaytouna Academy of Cultural Arts. 4) Jose Miguel ‘Miggy' Esteban, CanAsian Dance and Toronto Dance Theatre EntryWaves Residency, 2024. Courtesy the artist. 6) From Q***r & Trans Antagonism Against the Consortium of Let Die in Beirut (forthcoming book). Courtesy Maya El Helou.

05/27/2026

Haptics have increasingly expanded into everyday encounters in our technologies and interfaces, creating a substrate in which accessibility can be explored and expanded. Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste’s work with “sound cannons” reproduces low-frequency sound to expand listening into felt registers. Maryam Hafizirad and Ely Lyonblum’s collaboration renders poetry’s “rhythms, polarities, and fractures as a graphic score in collage—a tactile medium that echoes the haptic feedback of [their] performance.”

Explore these texts, events, projects, and more on the , an ongoing, cumulative project that assembles concepts used in the Blackwood’s publications and programs.

Images:
1. Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste, Y’all Don’t Wanna Hear Me (You Just Wanna Dance) performed at The University of Toronto Mississauga, February 6, 2025. Courtesy UTM Office of Communications. Photo: Nick Iwanyshyn.
2. Excerpt from the glossary entry for “Haptic.”
3. Quote from Fraser McCallum curatorial text, The Art Gallery Problem at Dazibao, 2026.
4. From left to right: Home Affairs with Ozlem Ozkal, Artsit, 2017 and Leisure, Conversations with Magic Forms, 2017. Installation View. Photo:Toni Hafkenscheid.
5. Quote from Amber Berson and Juliana Driever curatorial text, Take Care, Circuit 2: Care Work, 2017.
6. Maryam Hafizirad, Instead, 2025. Collage, mixed media, ceramic, 51 x 35.5cm. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Max Safavi. Quote from Ely Lyonblum with Maryam Hafizirad, “Gestures Across Auditory and Deaf Cultures,” All Hands On Deck!, 2026.

05/13/2026

Opening today in the UTM campus lightboxes (University of Toronto Mississauga), The Classroom featuring images by Hicham Benohoud.

The Classroom consists of over 100 photographs taken by Hicham Benohoud while working as an art teacher in Marrakech between 1994 and 2002. Benohoud staged increasingly elaborate scenes with his students, generating a body of work that reflects postcolonial identity, performance, and pedagogy.

The series arose from Benohoud’s frustrations with Morocco’s rigid educational system of the time, whose curriculum of repetition and mimicry bored him and his students alike. In The Classroom, Benohoud uses the school furniture and art supplies at his disposal to create quirky, witty, and poignant images.

The Classroom is not simply cheerful portraiture, as many of his students’ expressions convey ambivalence with the camera. Benohoud suggests their unease reflects the hardships or repression they faced in Morocco’s postcolonial society. The artist’s props often confine, shape, or obscure the sitter’s body, creating “visual metaphors [that] reflect the constraints of my own reality.” These tableaux exceed confinement to reveal forms of agency latent in everyday life, with the imagination and wit of young people at their centre.

A public program series will run alongside The Classroom throughout Spring/Summer 2026. Further details will be announced shortly.

Curated by Fraser McCallum.

The Blackwood gratefully acknowledges the support of the University of Toronto Mississauga, Canada Council for the Arts, and Ontario Arts Council. The Classroom is proudly sponsored by U of T affinity partners, Manulife (Manulife) and TD Insurance (TD Insurance). Discover the benefits of affinity products! https://buff.ly/8rRg1s2

Image credit: Hicham Benohoud, The Classroom, 1994–2002. Gelatin silver print. Courtesy the artist.

04/15/2026

While some definitions of sensorium are limited to only include the brain or mind, others counter mind-body division in favour of an integrated embodied cognition that proposes both as equally necessary to interface experience and environment. Highlighted here from the Blackwood’s glossary, the sensorium—a body’s entire sensory apparatus—includes all the senses and can be explored at microscopic or macroscopic levels, in human and more-than-human bodies. Recently discussed in Devon Healey and Seika Boye’s conversation in the publication All Hands On Deck!, the idea of the sensorium as an organizing principle or essential mediator has been threaded through many contributions across the Blackwood’s programs.

Explore these texts, events, projects, and more on the , an ongoing, cumulative project that assembles concepts used in the Blackwood’s publications and programs.

Images:
1. k.g. Guttman, Hands Become Ears, 2017. Photo: Yuula Benivolski. Courtesy the artist.
2. Excerpt from the glossary entry for “Sensorium.”
3. Quote from Devon Healey and Seika Boye’s conversation, Reorganizing the Sensorium: Dance, Blindness, and Immersive Descriptive Audio,” All Hands On Deck!, 2026.
4. Baum & Leahy, Sensory Cellumonials: Taste portal, 2021. Courtesy the artist.
5. Quote from Baum & Leahy’s description of Sensory Cellumonials, 2021.
6. Quote from Farah Yusuf’s curatorial statement for The Unfathomable Weight, 2023.
7. Erika DeFreitas, to be sought, rounded, and full of grace (no.6), 2023. Courtesy the artist.

03/30/2026

Are you a post-secondary student interested in contemporary art curating and research? Join us in the role of Curatorial Research Assistant, a Young Canada Works in Heritage Organizations position for Summer 2026, beginning May 11. Visit our website for the full job description, eligibility, and instructions for applying: https://buff.ly/bvYWaQM

Deadline to apply: April 24, 2026, 11:59pm EST

Image: Oughtism, February 5–7, 2026. Photo: Nick Iwanyshyn.

Image description: Attendees are gathered around craft paper covered tables, cutting, collaging, and drawing together. The image is against a bright lime-green background with grey circles and includes black text that reads “Join our team” and includes the job title and application deadline.

03/18/2026

Opening on March 25! Join us for the opening reception of Stream of Consciousness, the 2026 Art & Art History Graduating Students’ Exhibition.

Presenting recent works by students from the graduating class of the UTM and Sheridan College Art & Art History program, the exhibition is curated by students in FAH451: 𝘊𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘕𝘰𝘸: 𝘛𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘊𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘴 in the Department of Visual Studies Dvs Utm. The exhibition will be on view in the Blackwood galleries from March 25–April 11, 2026.

The exhibition will be expanded with two public programs and a Tidal Library. On April 1, artists Hafsa Murtaza and Fabiha Ruthmila will host Sifting: Collage Shaped by Media & Memory, a hands-on collage workshop and on April 8, artists Isabella Iacoe, Sebastian Razo, and Sarah Taylor will engage in a panel discussion, Simmering: Identity, Food & Relational Aesthetics.

Programs are free with refreshments provided. No registration or prior experience is necessary.

Follow () on Instagram for more information!

The Blackwood gratefully acknowledges the support of the University of Toronto Mississauga, Canada Council for the Arts, and Ontario Arts Council. The Art & Art History graduating students’ exhibition is proudly sponsored by U of T affinity partners, Manulife Manulife and TD Insurance TD Insurance. Discover the benefits of affinity products! https://buff.ly/0ETt5hJ

03/13/2026

The Art Gallery Problem continues at Dazibao until April 4! Co-presented with The Blackwood, where it was first shown in 2025, this iteration features two new works:

Kent Chan’s The Burning of a Museum premieres in this exhibition. The film pairs the National Museum of Brazil’s 2018 fire with the continued deforestation of the Amazon. Examining these parallel instances of destruction, the film asks what it would mean to soften distinctions between nature and culture to better align the museum’s values with the rainforest.

Montreal-based artist Anahita Norouzi presents The Weight of Distant Objects, which sheds light on legal disputes from the sale of Iranian artifacts held at the University of Chicago. The series replicates limestone remnants from Persepolis, wrapped in newspaper and accompanied by corresponding images. The detachment of distanced objects is paired with newspapers which chronicle the 1979 hostage crisis.

Image credits: Kent Chan, The Burning of a Museum, Two-channel video, 24 min 22 s. Stills courtesy the artist and Anahita Norouzi, The Weight of Distant Objects, 2025.
Installation views from The Art Gallery Problem, Dazibao, 2026. Co-presented with The Blackwood, University of Toronto Mississauga. Photos: Atlas documentation.

***

The Art Gallery Problem se poursuit à Dazibao jusqu’au 4 avril! Coprésentée avec The Blackwood, où elle a été montrée pour la première fois en 2025, cette itération comprend deux nouvelles œuvres :

Le film The Burning of a Museum de Kent Chan est présenté en première dans le cadre de cette exposition. Le film met en parallèle l’incendie du Musée national du Brésil en 2018 et la déforestation continue de l’Amazonie. En examinant ces formes parallèles de destruction, le film interroge ce que signifierait d’atténuer les distinctions entre nature et culture afin de mieux aligner les valeurs du musée avec celles de la forêt tropicale.

L’artiste montréalaise Anahita Norouzi présente The Weight of Distant Objects, une installation qui met en lumière des litiges juridiques liés à la vente d’artéfacts iraniens conservés à l’Université de Chicago. Réalisée en calcaire, la série reproduit des vestiges de Persépolis enveloppés dans du papier journal et accompagnés d’images correspondantes. La distanciation de ces objets est mise en relation avec des journaux relatant la prise d’otages de 1979.

Crédits images : Kent Chan, The Burning of a Museum, vidéo à deux canaux, 24 min 22 s. Images fixes avec l’aimable autorisation de l’artiste.
Anahita Norouzi, The Weight of Distant Objects, 2025.
Vues d’installation de The Art Gallery Problem, Dazibao, 2026. Présentée en coproduction avec The Blackwood, University of Toronto Mississauga. Photos: Atlas documentation.

03/10/2026

2025-2026 has found the Blackwood in a deep exploration of divergent modes of doing, feeling, and being, through the exhibitions STIM CINEMA, On Butterfly Logic, and Spreads from the Multiverse, the multimodal seminar series Oughtism, and our latest publication All Hands On Deck! As Director/Curator Christine Shaw notes in a recent interview with UTM News, we’ve been thinking about how we can highlight “practical and concrete attempts to reconfigure the world so that it might cultivate, rather than diminish, the flourishing of neurodivergent forms of life.”

To support this, here we highlight some initiatives we’ve recently taken to support neurodivergence and accessibility in the galleries. Accessibility is an ongoing, collaboratively built process: we share these to invite feedback, and to circulate some of our recent strategies with the hope they’ll be useful for others.

STIM CINEMA was designed with a commitment to accessibility and neurodiverse inclusion, which included stim tools, textured seating to support sensory regulation and embodied engagement with the space, soft lighting, and plinths of varied heights. Core content was presented in layered formats, including audio descriptions, transcripts, and exhibition audio and large-print guides.

The publication All Hands On Deck!, which explores frameworks for access-creation tools and methodologies in the arts, is available in print and online as a series of articles or downloadable PDF. Affirming that accessibility is built collectively and sustained through collaboration, the publication weaves access through multiple and intersensory formats including audio readings by the authors and ASL interpretation from Phoenix The Fire.

Descriptive audio guides for the current lightbox exhibition, Spreads from the Multiverse, are available on our website. In each, Research and Outreach Assistant Liam Mullen guides visitors through wayfinding and visual descriptions of each lightbox that resonate with the texts cascading across the page.

The Blackwood gratefully acknowledges the support of the University of Toronto Mississauga, Canada Council for the Arts, and Ontario Arts Council. STIM CINEMA and Spreads from the Multiverse are proudly sponsored by U of T affinity partners, Manulife Manulife and TD Insurance TD Insurance. Discover the benefits of affinity products! https://buff.ly/3mJQZyR

!

Image credits: Blackwood Gallery and Nick Iwanyshyn

02/26/2026

À L'AFFICHE/ON VIEW
The Art Gallery Problem

Jusqu'au / Until 04.04 2026

Commissaire / Curator: Fraser McCallum

Artistes / Artists: Kent Chan, Nikita Gale, Matt Nish-Lapidus, Anahita Norouzi, Karthik Pandian, Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste

Coprésentation avec / Co-presented with: The Blackwood, University of Toronto Mississauga

Cette exposition s’approprie le problème de la galerie d’art pour interroger la manière dont les objets et les corps sont mis en jeu dans les galeries et les musées. Le « problème » n’est pas univoque, contrairement à ce que suggère l’approche mathématique. La présentation de l’art excède largement la sécurisation des objets : elle engage aussi des questions de récit, de représentation, d’hégémonie et d’accès au savoir.

En découvrir plus sur l'exposition : dazibao.art/exposition-the-art-gallery-problem

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This exhibition appropriates the art gallery problem as a framework to consider how objects and bodies are put to work in galleries and museums. The “problem” is in fact not singular: there is far more to the presentation of art than the securitization of objects; there are problems of narrative, representation, hegemony, and access to knowledge.

Learn more about the exhibition: en.dazibao.art/exhibition-the-art-gallery-problem

02/25/2026

Recap! Earlier this month, The Blackwood hosted Oughtism, a multimodal seminar presented in response to the current exhibition STIM CINEMA. Contributors expanded upon the exhibition’s ethical, political, and social commitments to neurodiverse cultures, aesthetics, and modes of perception through screenings, talks, workshops, and tours.

We began on Thursday, February 5th with a screening of The Stimming Pool (The Stimming Pool) followed by a discussion with co-creators and Neurocultures Collective members Georgia Bradburn and Sam Chown Ahern, and filmmaker Steven Eastwood, facilitated by Chris Gehman of Vtape (Vtape) at the CAMH Auditorium in Toronto.

The next day, Janet Harbord presented on her new book “Autism and the Empathy Epidemic,” which argues that autism, like cinema, models an ethical apprehension of the more-than-human world, followed by M. Remi Yergeau’s talk, “Poopseveration,” which considered the possibilities of sh*t—its perversities, obsessions, and meanderings—asking toward what affects and body-knowledges might our crap compel us? The day concluded with an out loud reading tour of the newly installed lightbox exhibition, Spreads from the Multiverse, with guest curator Chris Martin, and a tactile, visual, and nonlinear workshop led by Georgia Bradburn, Sam Chown Ahern, and Steven Eastwood.

Our last day began with a talk and workshop from Chris Martin, which introduced languaging practices gleaned from neurodiverse poets from the Multiverse book series (Milkweed Editions), inviting us to engage in some of our own collective languaging. Next, Leon J. Hilton discussed his new book “Counter-Cartographies: Neurodivergence and the Errancies of Performance.” The symposium then closed with a Stimprovisation workshop led by neuroqueer choreographer Dr. Aby Watson, which had us stimprovising by tuning into the sensorial curiosities of our bodyminds.

Thank you to those who were in attendance, and to the support of the 2025-26 UTM/JHI Annual Seminar, University of Toronto Mississauga, Canada Council for the Arts, and Ontario Arts Council. Support for the exhibition STIM CINEMA was provided by the Jackman Humanities Institute Program for the Arts (Jackman Humanities Institute) and the screening of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 Stimming Pool was presented in collaboration with Vtape. All events were proudly sponsored by U of T affinity partners, Manulife (Manulife) and TD Insurance (TD Insurance). Discover the benefits of affinity products! https://buff.ly/S4nYKoe

Image credits: Blackwood Gallery, Nick Iwanyshyn, and Henry Chan

Blackwood Gallery

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Monday	12pm - 5pm
Tuesday	12pm - 5pm
Wednesday	12pm - 9pm
Thursday	12pm - 5pm
Friday	12pm - 5pm
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