AGO sets 25 September 2027 opening for C$100m modern wing

By Marcus Bennett

The Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto will open its C$100m ($73.4m) Dani Reiss Modern and Contemporary Gallery to the public on 25 September 2027. The five-storey wing will display around 400 modern and contemporary works.

The 40,000-square-foot expansion overlooks downtown Toronto’s Grange Park and increases the AGO’s display space by around 30%. Of the addition, 5,000 square feet will provide gallery space with 23-foot-high ceilings.

The expansion was first made public in April 2022 and is now fully funded through a community of supporters and the governments of Ontario and Canada. A C$35m ($25.7m) lead gift from collector Dani Reiss, chairman and chief executive of Canada Goose and a member of the Order of Canada, sparked the project.

Stephan Jost, the AGO’s outgoing director and chief executive, made the institutional case in a statement:

“The Dani Reiss Modern and Contemporary Gallery is more than an expansion project—it is Toronto and Canada announcing its global position. When this gallery opens in September 2027, the world will be made aware of the strength of the AGO collection and the degree to which it has evolved to be truly global.”

At the April 2022 launch, Jost stressed that it was not a small project. The building is a collaboration among three architecture firms with established work in cultural institutions.

• Diamond Schmitt, headquartered in Toronto, is known for revamping Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver and for the forthcoming New Brunswick Museum in Saint John.
• New York-based Selldorf Architects recently renovated the National Gallery in London and the Frick Collection in Manhattan.
• Two Row Architect, based in Ohsweken, Ontario, is known for the Perry Centre for Native American Art at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont.

Together, they place the commission within a substantial culture of museum building and renewal. The scale is evident. The curatorial case remains open.

The need for more room is measurable. The AGO’s modern and contemporary collection grew by around 18,000 pieces over the past decade.

The 2024 gift comprised 37 works from the estate of telecoms executive Philip B. Lind. It included pieces by Laurie Simmons, Stan Douglas, Jeff Wall, Ai Weiwei, William Kentridge, Rodney Graham and Philip Guston, among others.

Last year, the AGO acquired more than 200 photographs by Peter Hujar and received more than 450 works from the late collectors Carol and Morton Rapp. The latter included works by Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg, Kara Walker, Rachel Whiteread, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Lee Bontecoue and David Hockney.

Those gains coexist with a contested boundary. The AGO found itself at the centre of a culture-war debate after choosing not to acquire a work by the US photo-based artist and activist Nan Goldin.

What does the new wing change for visitors?

For visitors, the immediate change is a dedicated setting for around 400 modern and contemporary works, a 30% increase in display space and 5,000 square feet of 23-foot-high gallery rooms. The capacity is concrete; the interpretive gain must still be made through display.

That distinction matters because more space can weaken a collection’s narrative as easily as clarify it. The AGO’s holdings provide the substance; visitors will judge the result by how coherently the institution presents them.

The AGO’s established sculpture record gives the expansion an art-historical anchor. It holds the largest public collection of Henry Moore’s work outside the UK.

Two years ago, the gallery marked the 50th anniversary of its Henry Moore Sculpture Centre, and Toronto declared 13 November Henry Moore Day. The modern wing therefore extends an institutional story already shaped by sculpture, not a new story beginning with the building.

Speaking for the federal government, Gregor Robertson, minister of housing and infrastructure, said:

“The federal government is proud to support this sustainable, state-of-the-art gallery that will host some of the world’s best modern and contemporary art for generations to come.”

With the project fully funded, the remaining test is institutional and curatorial. The decisive date is 25 September 2027, when the public can judge whether the new wing turns Jost’s promise of a global position into a convincing account of the AGO’s modern and contemporary collection.