This fall, the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) presents the first major retrospective of late Trinidadian-Canadian artist Denyse Thomasos. One of the finest painters to emerge in the 1990s, Thomasos had a singular style that employed abstraction as a means to explore contemporary issues of race, the architecture of confinement and our complex relationships to space and place, and the environment.

Born in Trinidad and raised in Toronto, Thomasos (1964-2012) left an indelible mark on contemporary painting. When most painters of her generation were forsaking abstract language, she embraced it. Through pattern, scale, and repetition she conveys the vastness of events – such as the transatlantic slave trade – without exploiting the images of those who were most affected.

Since the 1990s, the AGO has maintained a sustained critical engagement with Thomasos’ work. The exhibition features loans from museums and private collections in Toronto, Montreal and New York City, curators worked closely with the artist’s family and gallerist, Olga Korper Gallery, to include rarely seen sketches, photographs and documentary footage of Thomasos working in her studio.

“Thomasos’ talent and ambition made her one of the finest painters of her generation and in the years since her passing, the relevance of her work has only increased. Her deep commitment to narratives of the Black experience, structures of authority and the architecture of surveillance, has only made her singular talent more prescient,” say co-curators van der Avoird, Frater and Jacques. “In documentary footage, in her diaries and in the interviews of those who knew her, a portrait of an exceptional artist arises. We look forward to celebrating and furthering her legacy.”

Denyse Thomasos: just beyond is free for AGO Members, Annual Passholders, all Indigenous Peoples and visitors aged 25 and under. AGO Members see it first beginning Oct. 5, 2022. Same day

tickets can now be booked in person and online.