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Toronto’s creative landscape is brimming with talent, but too often, Black artists are underrepresented in galleries, overlooked in grant funding or expected to create only within narrow cultural expectations. That’s starting to change. A wave of Black artists across the Greater Toronto Area is enriching what art means, who it’s for and where it’s seen.
From fabric portraits to powerful photo essays, these creators aren’t just making work—they’re telling stories that have long gone unheard too often.
Take Gio Swaby, for example. Originally from the Bahamas and now based in Toronto, her textile portraits of Black women—stitched, layered and radiant—have been displayed in major institutions across North America. Her work reclaims softness, power and pride all at once, shying away from the negative stereotypes placed on Black women. Swaby’s 2024 solo exhibition Fresh Up at Art Toronto was a major cultural moment, proving that “fine art” can be rooted in family and community.
Textile isn’t the only medium making waves. In west-end Toronto, Daniel Akinlalu captures striking portraits of Black residents and urban backdrops in work that feels part documentary, part love letter. His photography explores what it means to be Black in the city—not just surviving but thriving, celebrating, becoming. His recent series, featured in Humber ETC, draws attention for the way it quietly commands space in a loud world.
Another essential voice is Shelly Grace, a multi-disciplinary artist who blends spoken word, photography and community education. Her work often centers Black girlhood, care and self-actualization, refusing trauma as the only narrative. In 2022, she was awarded Toronto’s Breakthrough Artist by the Toronto Arts Foundation, recognizing her unique ability to build bridges between art and activism.
Of course, some artists defy easy categorization. Anique Jordan is one of those boundary-breakers. A visual artist, curator and cultural historian, Jordan’s work often draws from archival research to reimagine Canadian history through a Black lens. Whether she’s constructing surreal photographs or staging powerful performances, her work reminds viewers that Black presence in this country is deep, rich and enduring.
Then there’s Esmaa Mohamoud, known for monumental installations that explore Black masculinity, vulnerability and athleticism. Her sculptures—like a series of deflated basketball forms cast in concrete—speak to systemic pressure and identity. Mohamoud’s work has been shown at the Art Gallery of Ontario and in public spaces as part of the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival.
These artists aren’t working in isolation. They’re part of a broader movement—one that’s reimagining not only the arts but the infrastructure surrounding it. They mentor, collaborate, host community programs and reclaim the artistic space in every sense of the word. And they’re not just creating for galleries or grants; they’re creating for each other—for the older generations and the younger ones who might finally see
themselves being represented.
Black art in the GTA is not a trend or a category. It’s a force—ever-evolving, deeply rooted and impossible to ignore.
