The Art Gallery of York University leads At The Transit Bar: An International Visiting Curator Series, bringing ten prominent international curators to Toronto over two years. The title of this series refers to Vera Frenkel’s multi-channel video installation … from the Transit Bar (documenta IX, 1992). Each visiting curator will give a public talk on their research, conduct studio visits with local artists, and host a curatorial workshop for emerging curators. For this program, we have partnered with ten Toronto arts organizations to host each curator and present the talks in various locations across the city. Our partners include: A Space Gallery; Art Museum at the University of Toronto; The Bentway; Contact Photography Festival; Critical Distance Centre for Curators; Museum of Contemporary Art, Toronto; Indigenous Visual Culture, OCAD University; Toronto Biennial of Art; The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery; and Visual Art & Art History (VAAH), Department of Art, Media, Performance & Design of York University. At the Transit Bar is made possible with the support of Outset Contemporary Art Fund and Partners In Art.

A pdf of the program is available by clicking here.

Visiting Curator Biographies & Partnering Arts Organizations

2024
MAY • Mariam Zulfiqar is a curator of contemporary art and currently holds the position of Director at Artangel in London, UK. Zulfiqar is primarily interested in commissioning art in contexts that challenge conventional practices of display in museums and galleries. She has an extensive history of academic and professional mentorship both in the UK and abroad, including guest lectures at the Royal College of Art, UK; McGill University, Canada; and the National College of Art, Pakistan. She was instrumental in the development of projects and programs for Art in the Underground from 2010–15 in London, UK, commissioning and presenting artworks in the city-wide public transport system. Zulfiqar was invited to provide her insights on the complex role of making public art on transit by the City of Markham in 2020. Prior to joining Artangel, Mariam led the art programme for Forestry England.
Co-host: The Bentway, established in 2018, leads a creative movement to re-imagine the possibilities of Toronto’s downtown elevated highway, the Gardiner Expressway. As a new type of public space and programming platform, the organization is dedicated to exploring the city as site, subject, and canvas. The Bentway firmly positions their creative partners at the centre of urban change, working with artists, designers, and educators to present free public art interventions, performances, learning, and recreational programs.

AUGUST • Marie Hélène Pereira is a curator and cultural practitioner from Dakar, Senegal. She lives and works in Berlin. She is Senior Curator (Performative Practices) at Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) in Berlin as well as a member of RAW Material Company since 2011 and its Director of Programs from 2019 to 2022. She has organized exhibitions and related discursive programs, including the participation of RAW in We Face Forward: Art from West Africa Today, presented in Manchester, New York, and Shanghai. She co-curated Scattered Seeds in Cali, Colombia, 2015–17, and curated Battling to Normalize Freedom in Mumbai, 2017. Pereira was co-curator of a section of the 13th edition of the Dakar Biennale of Contemporary African Art; part of the artistic team of Still Present!, the 12th Berlin Biennale, 2022; and a recipient of the ICI Curatorial Research Fellowship in 2021. She is profoundly interested in the politics of identity and histories of migration.
Co-host: Museum of Contemporary Art, Toronto (MOCA), is a contemporary art focused institution that has served as an important gathering space in Toronto and Canada for artists to experiment, celebrate complexity, and offer thought-provoking responses to the current cultural moment.

SEPTEMBER • Mari Spirito is the Director and Curator of Protocinema, a cross-cultural arts organization based in New York with international operations. Protocinema was founded in 2011 in response to observed disparities and misdistribution of resources between art communities globally. In 2022, Protocinema, with Laura Raicovich, launched Protodispatch, a monthly digital publication of artists’ dispatches on the life conditions that necessitate their work. In 2020, she held a revolutionary group exhibition titled A Few in Many Places, featuring five artists showcasing their work in Philadelphia, Beirut, Berlin, Montreal, and Istanbul. Spirito’s practice is guided by a vested interest in listening and learning, an asset to her role leading Art Basel’s Conversations Program from 2013 until 2018. Her latest exhibition, The Myth of Normal: A Celebration of Authentic Expression, was hosted at the MassArt Art Museum, commemorating the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.
Co-host: The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery is devoted exclusively to contemporary art, ideas, and conversations. Since 1987, The Power Plant has been on a mission to share creative and inspiring experiences with audiences through free admission to exhibitions and public programs.

OCTOBER • Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy is a contemporary curator from Mexicali, Mexico. She recently held the directorship of Kunstinstituut Melly in Rotterdam, playing a significant role in addressing the organization’s colonial roots through its renaming. She has extensive experience in collecting contemporary art as curatorship, evident in her essay in Ten Fundamental Questions of Curating titled “What about Collecting?” Hernández Chong Cuy has gone on to present her curatorial research at The Power Plant, Toronto; The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York; Kadist Art Foundation, Paris; MALBA, Buenos Aires; and the Center for Contemporary Art, Vilnius. She built the contemporary holdings of one of the foremost collections of Latin American art as the Curator of Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, New York, a position she held from 2011–17. In addition, she has been director of Museo Tamayo in Mexico City and held curatorial positions at Art in General and the Americas Society, both in New York.
Co-host: Art Museum, University of Toronto, is a public contemporary art gallery affiliated with University of Toronto’s St. George Campus that hosts a year-round program of critically engaged exhibitions and events that foster innovative research and interdisciplinary scholarship. Comprised of the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery (Hart House) and the University of Toronto Art Centre (University College), it is one of the largest gallery spaces in Toronto.

NOVEMBER • Dr Brook Andrew is an artist, curator, and writer driven by the collisions of intertwined narratives emerging from the mess of the “Colonial Wuba” [hole]. His practice is grounded in his perspective as a Wiradjuri, Ngunnawal, and Celtic person from Australia. In 2023, he premiered new work at Sharjah Biennial, Liverpool Biennial, and for the Skopje Solidarity Collection curated by WHW (What, How & for Whom). As a curator, Brook Andrew was artistic director of the First Nations and artist-led NIRIN: the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, 2020; an international advisor for the Sámi Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale, 2022; and is currently Adjunct Curator ngurambang-ayinya (First Nations), Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. Brook Andrew is Enterprise Professor Interdisciplinary Practice and Director Reimagining Museums and Collections at the University of Melbourne. His studio is located in Melbourne, on the lands of the Kulin Nations.
Co-host: The Indigenous Visual Culture program at OCAD University combines practice-specific and interdisciplinary studio-based learning, and courses in the visual, cultural, social, and political history of Indigenous peoples.

2025
MARCH • Nontobeko Ntombela is the Head of the Department of Curatorial, Public, and Visual Cultures at Wits School of Arts in Johannesburg, South Africa. Her research is focused on modern and contemporary South African art, particularly early modern Black women artists. Ntombela’s expertise is highlighted by her exhibition, Then I Knew I Was Good at Painting: Esther Mahlangu, A Retrospective, presented at the Iziko South African National Gallery in 2024. Before her current role, Ntombela curated for prominent institutions such as the Johannesburg Art Gallery, 2010–20; Durban University Art Gallery, 2005–10; BAT Centre, 2001–05; and Art for Humanity, 2000–01. She is co-editor, with artist Reshma Chhiba, of The Yoni Book, 2019.
Co-host: The Visual Art & Art History Department (VAAH) in the faculty of Art, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD) at York University offers a specialized program bridging art creation, art history, and curatorial practice. VAAH offers undergraduate and graduate degrees that provide opportunities for interdisciplinary study, creative research, and professional development.

APRIL • Cindy Sissokho is a curator and writer whose area of research focuses on anticolonial, social, and political practices in the arts. Sissokho’s curatorial practice is informed by the ongoing urgency to disseminate knowledge and artistic production from systemically racialized and marginalized perspectives. She is currently a curator at the Wellcome Collection in London, UK, and also co-curator of the French Pavilion for the 60th edition of the Venice Biennale 2024, represented by artist Julien Creuzet.
Co-host: CONTACT, established in 1997, is a not-for-profit arts organization celebrating and promoting lens-based media artworks. In addition to year-round programming and exhibitions at the CONTACT gallery, CONTACT is renowned for its annual festival of photography in Toronto—one of the largest in the country.

MAY • David Ayala-Alfonso is an artist, writer, curator, and educator based in Mexico City. In 2024, Ayala-Alfonso presented the third and fourth iterations of Never Spoken Again at the Fleming Museum of Art in Burlington, VT, and the Moss Art Center in Blacksburg, VA. This touring group exhibition reflects on the birth of modern collections, their contingent origin stories, and the art institutions that sustain them. He recently contributed as advisor and writer to the survey publications Latin American Artists: from 1975 to Now, 2023, and Vitamin V: Video and the Moving Image in Contemporary Art, 2025, both by Phaidon. He is a seasoned writer of visual culture, critical heritage, and art history, being published in Hyperallergic, Cultural Anthropology, Performance Research, Journal of Visual Culture, and FLORA. He also writes and produces acopyisacopyisacopy, an independent critical initiative about exhibitions and the curatorial. His work as an artist and curator has been showcased in the United States, Latin America, Asia, and Europe, solidifying his influential presence in the global art community.
Co-host: A Space is a socially engaged artist-run centre dedicated to promoting art and culture through critical and interdisciplinary programs including exhibitions, performances, screenings, collaborations, and discussions. The gallery is located at 401 Richmond, one of Toronto’s largest arts community hubs.

JULY • Manuela Moscoso is Executive Director and Chief Curator of Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA) in New York. Originally from Quito, Ecuador, her previous positions included Senior Curator at Museo Tamayo in Mexico City in 2018 and curator of the Liverpool Biennial in 2021. Her research focuses on creative practice rather than art objects, guiding her continual exploration of alternative approaches to research, creation, critical thinking, and production. Moscoso views collaboration as integral to her practice. Her research is grounded in alternative understandings of embodiment, porosity, kinship, and digestion to challenge western conceptions of the body.
Co-host: Critical Distance Centre for Curators, established in 2012, is a not-for-profit gallery and publisher devoted to the advancement of critical curatorial practice and inquiry in Toronto and beyond. Through their varied program of exhibitions and events, Critical Distance provides a forum for the exchange of diverse perspectives on curating as a way to connect people across geographies and generations.

AUGUST • Natasha Ginwala is a curator, researcher, and author. She has been artistic director of Colomboscope, Sri Lanka, since 2019; co-curator of the Sharjah Biennale 16; and associate curator at Gropius Bau, Berlin, 2018–24. She was also, with Defne Ayas, artistic director of the 13th Gwangju Biennale in 2021. Ginwala was part of the curatorial teams of the 8th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, 2014; the Contour Biennale 8; documenta 14, 2017; and the Taipei Biennale, 2012, and was co-curator of several international exhibitions including at e-flux, Sharjah Art Foundation, Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Aktuell, ifa Gallery, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, L’appartement 22, Muzeum Sztuki w Łodzi, MCA Chicago, 56th Venice Biennale, SAVVY Contemporary, and Zeitz MOCAA. Ginwala is a widely published author with a focus on contemporary art, visual culture, and social justice.
Co-host: Toronto Biennial of Art is a city-wide biannual public visual arts event focused exclusively on contemporary art from around the world. Located in venues across the GTA including museums, galleries, and outdoor venues, the Biennial organizes and presents free exhibitions, performances, and other events featuring local and international artists.

At the Transit Bar is conceived and led by AGYU Director/Curator Jenifer Papararo, with support from Liz Tsui and Kalina Nedelcheva, communications assistants, and input from AGYU team members Felicia Mings, curator, and Clara Halpern, assistant curator, exhibitions. We acknowledge the support and encouragement of Carol Weinbaum for her role in the development of this program. At the Transit Bar is made possible with the support of Outset Contemporary Art Fund and Partners In Art.