The Art Museum at the University of Toronto presents the powerful new exhibition Labour by guest curator Ingrid Jones from Sept. 4, 2024–March 22, 2025, at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery. The exhibition challenges racial biases, unveiling the corrosive effects of unseen labour on the colonized from Black and Indigenous perspectives while exploring how this labour can be unburdened and shifted onto the dominant. Featured artists are: Natalie Asumeng, La Tanya S. Autry, Tony Cokes, Chantal Gibson, Tanya Lukin Linklater, Kosisochukwu Nnebe, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, and Martine Syms.

Inspired by Claudia Rankine’s scholarship on microaggressions in Citizen: An American Lyric and themes of perceptibility, the exhibition asks: What are the motivations for our inclusion in institutional spaces? Who has the right to tell our stories? What is our right to rage in the face of discriminatory acts? And how can we employ much-needed rest as a form of resistance?

Labour introduces an exciting number of new commissions that embrace alternative pedagogies focused on decolonial perspectives, offering immersive experiences that prioritize rest and reflection for BIPOC communities, while also activating learning opportunities that encourage audiences to engage deeply with the exhibition space.

The show includes compelling video works by Tony Cokes, Kosisochukwu Nnebe, and Martine Syms; artist manifestos in the form of a library installation by curator and cultural worker La Tanya S. Autry; a series of haptic poems in the form of altered texts and sculptural works by writer, artist, and educator Chantal Gibson; and a large-scale textual work by writer and musician Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. Labour concludes with the cathartic sonic and visually meditative works of Natalie Asumeng and Tanya Lukin Linklater.

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