The country’s biggest art fair, with more than 100 exhibitors, is both a centre of commercial activity and a sprawling diorama of a national aesthetic This year’s Art Toronto fair is nothing if not a metaphor for the contemporary Canadian experience.
Staged in a convention centre on the banks of Lake Ontario in a place that was once a traditional trading grounds for local First Nations, Canada’s largest art fair opening to the public today (until 27 October) is part cultural emporium, part diorama of a national aesthetic. It is a gathering of the gallery tribes from coast to coast, a destination for collectors and a chance for artists and dealers from disparate regions to catch up on the latest trends.
If it were a Leonard Cohen song, it would be a hybrid of Hallelujah and One of Us Cannot Be Wrong. If it were a quotation from the author Robertson Davies, it would be this one: “I see Canada as a land torn between a very northern rather mystical, extraordinary spirit which it fears and its desire to present itself to the world as a Scotch banker.”
But as one ascends an escalator (passing, during Thursday’s preview, an unfolding Indian wedding in an adjacent lobby) and enters into the section of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre that houses the fair, any lingering sense of Presbyterianism is overwhelmed by sheer scale, mass and diversity—much like Canada itself. With its mix of public, private, non-profit and commercial galleries, blue-chip and emerging artists, Art Toronto is a moveable feast of Canadiana spread across 200,000 sq. ft and more than 100 stands.