Fall 2026 Exhibitions at The Goldfarb Gallery

Torkwase Dyson, Cotton (Bird and Lava), 2024. Photograph: Richard Gary, courtesy Pace Gallery.

Opening Reception

Thursday, September 10, 2026, 6–8pm | RSVP & more information
Exhibitions on view September 11, 2026 – March 6, 2027
The Joan and Martin Goldfarb Gallery of York University, Toronto

The Goldfarb Gallery invites you to the opening of Torkwase Dyson: The Distance Inside Us (Bird and Lava), curated by Lillian O’Brien Davis, and Fabulous Neoconstantinopolitanism by Jeanne Randolph with John Monteith, with additional artworks by Josef Albers, Robert Motherwell, and Victor Vasarely.

Please note that Lillian O’Brien Davis and Jeanne Randolph will be present for the opening but unfortunately Torkwase Dyson is unavailable. She will be joining us in late October and then again in March for the closing events.

Torkwase Dyson, In Conditions of Fresh Water (Bird and Lava), 2026. Courtesy Pace Gallery.

The Distance Inside Us (Bird and Lava)
Torkwase Dyson

Curated by Lillian O’Brien Davis

The Goldfarb Gallery is thrilled to host the first solo exhibition of Dyson’s work in Canada. Torkwase Dyson’s The Distance Inside Us (Bird and Lava) explores the literal and conceptual spaces of liberation and confinement as a world-building exercise in a time of ecological crisis.

About the Artist

Torkwase Dyson (b. 1973, Chicago) describes herself as a painter working across multiple mediums to explore the continuity between ecology, infrastructure, and architecture. Examining the history and future of black spatial liberation strategies, Dyson’s abstract works grapple with the ways in which space is perceived and negotiated, particularly by Black and brown bodies. The artist has distilled a vocabulary of poetic forms to address the spaciousness of freedom and question what type of climates are born out of world building.

Visit the exhibition webpage for more information.

Courtesy Jeanne Randolph

Fabulous Neoconstantinopolitanism
Jeanne Randolph with John Monteith

In the Visible Vault’s Study Centre is the latest of Jeanne Randolph’s series of works that explore the world of La Betty. Inspired by the tribulations of St. Anthony of the Desert, La Betty is inheritor of twentieth-century consumer-grade materialism, buttressing herself from existential anxieties with advertising slogans and luxury goods. Works by Victor Vasarely, Josef Albers, and Robert Motherwell dominate the space, hung salon-style in a grid format, with an abstract rug by contemporary artist John Monteith lain before them.

About the Artist

Jeanne Randolph is an independent intellectual whose writings interpret Canadian culture psychoanalytically and philosophically, reflecting her disdain for advertising and consumerism, her paranoia about The Technological Ethos, and her cavalier attitude toward pop culture, fashion, ethics, and hysteria. Author of several influential books, she has recently turned to text/image works and performative lectures.

Visit the exhibition webpage for more information.

About The Goldfarb Gallery

The Joan and Martin Goldfarb Gallery of York University is a socially minded not-for-profit contemporary art gallery that is a space for the creation and appreciation of art and culture. It is a supported Unit of York University. We are externally funded as a public art gallery through the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council, local and international foundations, embassies, and our membership who support our programs.

First Nations peoples have lived on this part of Turtle Island for millennia, stewarding the land, the water and all that contributes to life in this region. Today, the culture and presence of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples enrich the lands and people of this territory.

More than two centuries ago, the Mississauga people welcomed settlers to this territory, providing sustenance and engaging in trade and commerce. Between 1781 and 1820, eight treaties were signed with the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, who opened their territory to settlement. Today, York University’s Keele Campus is located on Toronto Purchase Treaty, No. 13 lands and is situated on the traditional territory of the Huron-Wendat and Haudenosaunee.

Treaty history is foundational, and it is our collective responsibility to honour the land, as we honour and respect those who have gone before us, those who are here and those who have yet to come. We are grateful for the opportunity to be learning, working and thriving on this land, and we commit to learn the truth and be active in the process of reconciliation.

The Joan and Martin Goldfarb Gallery of York University
83A York Boulevard
Toronto ON M3J 1P3
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Gallery Hours:
Tuesday to Saturday, 12–5pm

Accessibility:
The Goldfarb Gallery is fully accessible. The nearest wheeltrans stop is the north end of the York University Subway Station, on Line 1.