About

Find out more about showing your work with us.

We believe that artists know their work best, and they know their needs above all. Our mission is to have YYZ provide artists with autonomy over their entire practice, from idea to exhibition to preservation—to provide both a space to show, and the support to create.

If you’re working on something you’re excited about, submit to show with us.

YYZ supports critical and experimental artistic practices of all mediums and forms. We offer exhibitions, print books and publications, educational programs, and the commissioning of new work.

Learn about our history.

We are now, and have always been, a gallery curated by consensus and managed by a volunteer Board of Directors. We show work after a process of dialogue and collaboration, both internally and with our community of artists and other institutions. We commit space, support, mentorship, and accessibility as the core values of our civic responsibility.

YYZ is guided by a board of directors comprised of artists and art community supporters. Read more about our board members.

To us, ‘space’ is defined as an engagement within our gallery walls, online, between the covers of books, on posters, at partnering institutions, and in the public sphere.

At YYZ, ‘artists’ means any professional artist at any stage of their career, working in any medium.

Find out what it means to be Artist-led.

When we refer to ourselves as an ‘outlet,’ we’re thinking of a release: the flow of work an artist finds in the course of bringing their ideas to the public.

We define exhibition support as the payment of an artist fee, installation and technical assistance, financial assistance with travel, accommodation, shipping, and production when financially possible. When we commission a text that is to be designed and distributed, it is always done as the artist requires—sometimes as a poster and other times as a simple pamphlet—and we always pay writer’s fees. Installation and exhibition design assistance are provided by the staff, along with the cost of exhibition materials and labour.

Additional support is available from the Ontario Arts Council Exhibition Assistance grant.

We facilitate public programming as the artist requests such as performances, screenings, talks, and social opening events because we define accessible as truly open to all.

Learn more about YYZ programs.

We define freedom as self-curation without the burden to produce commercial work.

We define risk as the process of experimentation.

We want to fear less, and trust more.