Toronto’s Amnesia and History in Arrears

Authors

  • Luis Jacob University of Toronto
  • Philip Monk Independent Scholar

Abstract

Luis Jacob and Philip Monk discuss the complexities of the Toronto art community’s history as a site of cultural production subject to on-going institutional neglect and willful forgetting.

Author Biographies

Luis Jacob, University of Toronto

Luis Jacob was born in Lima, Peru, in 1971.  He is a Toronto-based artist whose work destabilizes viewing conventions and invites collisions of meaning.  Since participating in documenta12 in 2007, he has achieved an international reputation — with exhibitions at Museum der Moderne Salzburg (2025): Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, and Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston (both 2022); the Toronto Biennial of Art (2019); La Biennale de Montréal (2016); Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York (2015); Taipei Biennial (2012); Generali Foundation, Vienna (2011); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2010); Hamburg Kunstverein and the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery (both 2008).  

Philip Monk, Independent Scholar

Philip Monk continues to be a writer, as he was from 1977 to the beginning of 1985, when he transitioned to being a senior curator, first at the Art Gallery of Ontario, then in 1994 until 2003 at the Power Plant, and finally supplemented by being Director, as well, at the Art Gallery of York University until the end of 2017. He has written fifteen books, including Genres High and Low: Writings on Art (2026), Is Toronto Burning?: Three Years in the Making (and Unmaking) of the Toronto Art Scene (2016), and Glamour is Theft: A User’s Guide to General Idea (2012). 

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Published

2026-05-31

Issue

Vol. 2026 No. 1 (2026): The Order of Canada

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Luis Jacob, Philip Monk

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