What's worth seeing at Canada's biggest design festival? Art shows galore … plus a corner store for pigeons

Toronto is home to the biggest annual design festival in the country, DesignTO. The 10-day-long affair opens its 15th edition Friday, with the launch of more than 100 events across the city, including art shows aplenty, window installations, talks, tours and other happenings, most of which are totally free. So what's worth seeing first? We gathered tips from some of this year's participating artists.

At the Conjuring of Roots, I Wished to Meet Me …

Technically, this outdoor photography exhibition has been towering above Sankofa Square since the beginning of January, but the next time you're shopping downtown, linger at Yonge and Dundas awhile to acquaint yourself with the work of Toronto-based artist Delali Cofie. A recent grad of OCAD University, Cofie is showing a selection of images from his award-winning thesis project, At the Conjuring of Roots, I Wished to Meet Me …, as part of DesignTO.

Through Jan. 31, those photographs will be appearing on five of the square's massive screens. Incredible garments pull the focus in each shot. They are voluminous creations that ripple with fringey layers of straw-like raffia and ruffles. Cofie, who was born and raised in Ghana, took inspiration from West African masquerade costumes in designing each look, and he collaborated with seamstresses back home in Accra to bring them to life. "The textiles that I use represent personal history," Cofie tells CBC Arts. For the project, he collected used fabric such as bedsheets and old clothes, stuff he gathered from his own closet — and his family's too. "I sort of reimagined these clothes as the self come to life."

Revive

For a closer look at Cofie's work, head to Gallery 235 at the Harbourfront Centre. There, the artist will be installing two garments plus four more photographs from the aforementioned series. Cofie is one of seven artists and designers featured in Revive, a group show curated by DesignTO. (It runs Jan. 25 – March 30). Other participants include Jessie Sohpaul, Judy Anderson and Roda Medhat. 

"From my perspective, [Revive] is archiving and an attempt at preserving art practices and craft practices that are in danger of being lost, either through industrialization, technological advances, globalization," says Medhat, whose own work explores Kurdish culture and craft. 

At Revive, the Guelph-based artist will be showing Marital Rug, a piece from 2024 that's part of a larger series inspired by neon signage. Using LED tubing, Medhat's created a mat with patterns that sizzle and glow — and yet, its form appears to slump and curve with the weight of gravity. "The way I think of rugs and textiles, they're not static objects that are just put on display. They are used in life," says Medhat. "So I want to bring that movement and the weight of the material back into the work."

Why use LEDs instead of traditional textiles? "When you're making something that's a bit of a spectacle," he says, "it helps to bring people into the conversation more easily. They want to approach the work and understand it. And from there, you can have the conversation around Kurdish history, Kurdish culture and things like that. Materially, I'm always exploring so that I can find ways to pull people into the work." (Medhat will be showing more from his neon rug series at another DesignTO exhibition: The Shape I'm In. That show, which runs Jan. 22 – Feb. 1 is at All Ours Studio & Art Vessel on Geary Ave.)

Dwell

"Being at Union [Station] at rush hour is kind of this horrible nightmare," says Alison Postma. "Busy, busy, busy. Rush, rush, rush. If there is a moment to kind of sit and reflect — or contemplate — I think that's really needed." On any given day, more than 300,000 people hustle through the station. And if you're frantically dodging a few hundred of those bodies as you make your way through the West Wing, this group show invites you to stop and chill for a second — a radical notion, especially if you're late for the train. 

Postma, a Toronto-based artist and recent graduate of the furniture design program at Sheridan College, is one of five designers with work on display between Jan. 24 – Feb. 2. Their contribution, Kissing Chair (2022), is a modern spin on a conversation seat, a sort of conjoined-twin version of a loveseat, one which arranges sitters in a forced tête-à-tête. "In Victorian times, [it] was used as a way for courting couples to interact but not be too close and be supervised," says Postma. "I thought that was quite charming," they laugh. "I wanted to think about the possibilities for furniture to kind of shape your reality. So, it's not just something that you sit in. When you sit in it, it creates this space, it creates conversation. It creates an intimacy," says Postma. "Like, it's very easy to sit in it with another person and forget what's going on around you."

Medhat says he's excited to see the piece in person, and the concept of the group show, which was curated by DesignTO, captured his imagination. "I think spatially it's interesting because it's in Union Station," he says. "To put in a show where the intention is for you to sit and wait and reflect and be with the work is interesting … To kind of go against the ethos of the space by creating these works that demand that you sit with them."

Bubble Quilt

Studio Rat is a creative collective founded by Dom Di Libero and Emily Allan, artists known for transforming trash into supersized inflatables — like the balloon tent (Plastiscapes) that rose 33 feet off the floor at Art Toronto in October.

For the festival, the duo will be presenting a piece described as an "immersive inflatable installation and lighting concept" — a Bubble Quilt of patchwork plastic that'll be revealed Jan. 24 at 55 St. Clair Ave. W. Postma can't wait to see it while it's up. (The installation will be on view through Feb. 2.) "I've been following [Studio Rat's] practice for awhile," says Postma. "There is this aspect of the material breathing and moving which I think needs to be seen in person." 

New Narratives in Design: Salvage, Reuse and Toronto's Evolving Aesthetic

Sustainability is a recurring theme on the festival schedule, Studio Rat's Bubble Quilt being one example. And this project — a two-fer involving a group exhibition of local makers plus an off-site tour of a renovation project — looks at how architects, designers and artisans can put salvaged materials to use here in Toronto. That pitch has Postma intrigued. "We live in a world of limited resources and that's not something that is always talked about in design," says the designer. "I think it's important, so I'm excited to see what people are doing with reclaimed materials." (The free exhibition is at Underscore Projects Jan. 25 – Feb. 2. The renovation tour runs Sunday, Jan. 26, and advance RSVP is required.)

About Time

Six old classmates from the craft and design department at Sheridan College are coming together for this eclectic group show featuring furniture, lighting and interactive design. It's like the grad exhibition they never had — with a twist. 

Toronto was still in lockdown when the participants finished school in 2021. "The work they're showing is kind of a reflection of the work that they didn't get to show then — and then, what they've been up to now," says Postma, who's excited to see how the cohort bridges that gap. It's on Jan. 24 – Feb. 2 at Stackt Market.

Snapshot: Foto de Familia

Speaking of old friends from school, Delali Cofie says you've got to see this window installation by Ernesto Cabral de Luna, one of his pals from OCAD U. The piece, which is appearing in the Stantec Window Gallery through March 20, is a deconstructed family photo from the '70s. A portrait of the artist's mom, aunt and grandparents has been enlarged, cracked and eroded. (As part of his process, Cabral de Luna transfers photo-album snapshots onto corroded copper plates.) "He's thinking about visual distortion of memories and how that can be visualized through physical degradation of material," says Cofie. "Also, it is just really good to look at."

Fractures and Futures

This solo exhibition from artist Catherine Chan appeared at the Art Gallery of Guelph last year. That's where Roda Medhat first saw it, and he's eager to revisit the show when it arrives at Collision Gallery for DesignTO (Jan. 24 – Feb. 15). "The work is visually striking," says Medhat, referring to Chan's use of kintsugi, the art of mending cracks with gold. Traditionally, it's a technique for repairing pottery, but here, Chan gilds rocks and other natural materials, making a link between geological time and the human experience of memory.  

Homing (Pigeon Store)

Pigeons. Name a bird that city-dwellers hate more. I'll wait. 

Maddy Young describes herself as a lifelong Torontonian, but she's developed a more charitable opinion than most. Last year, the artist embarked on a research project. She roamed the downtown by bike, documenting pigeons and the humans who fancy them. And as part of her study, she even built a miniature convenience store — a whimsical bike trailer stocked with plenty of feed. (Snacks are a great way to make friends, feathered or otherwise.) For DesignTO, she's presenting an installation based on the project. Inside the lobby of a condo building at 95 St. Clair Ave. W, you'll find her mobile bird bodega plus a flock of pigeon sculptures. (The show runs Jan. 24 – Feb. 2.) 

Why pigeons, though? "There's a strong feeling of instability, insecurity, living in the city," says Young. "You move around a lot, things change a lot. You don't know — like, can I continue living in Toronto? All my friends are leaving Toronto. And the pigeons are interesting to me as a symbol of adapting. Like, hacking the city, finding ways to keep living in this kind of precarious environment." They're "urban survivors," she says. "That's the draw."  

Beyond the Body and The Archivist

Toronto-based artist and designer Pixel Heller has two exhibitions at DesignTO, and both are must-sees according to Young and Cofie. Carnival masquerade and the artist's Afro-Caribbean culture influence much of her work, which extends across photography, performance and textiles. Costumes — wearable sculpture, really — take centre stage in Beyond the Body, an exhibition appearing at the same site as Young's show (95 St. Clair Ave. W). And in The Archivist, she shares a series of carnival-time photographs taken from the POV of a "performative photographer character." That show can be found down the street at 2-22 St. Clair Ave. E. Both exhibitions run Jan. 24 – Feb. 2.