Andrés Ramírez Gaviria
2026 Toronto Biennial of Art, Canada
26 September – 20 December 2026
Founded in 2019, the Toronto Biennial of Art (TBA) is Canada’s leading international visual arts event, attracting more than 1.3 million visitors across its first three editions. Held over 12 weeks, TBA presents new artworks across the city and beyond, making contemporary art free and accessible to all. Toronto’s status as one of the most diverse cities in the world, combined with its location on the Great Lakes – home to 20% of the world’s freshwater – will shape the 2026 biennial, according to its curator, Allison Glenn.
For the 4th Toronto Biennial of Art in 2026, Ramírez Gaviria will present Sources (Toronto), a new site-specific light installation. Using data from astronomical radio signals emitted by pulsars and quasars billions of years ago, the artist will reprogram a building’s lighting system so that its facade will pulse with bands of light. Collaborating with the University of Toronto’s Dunlap Institute and the Algonquin Radio Observatory, Ramírez Gaviria will transform the city’s skyline into a living transmitter of cosmic time. Complementary works on paper, visualising the same data, will be shown at another biennial venue.
Andrés Ramírez Gaviria (born 1975 in Bogotá, Colombia) lives and works in Vienna. His artistic practice uses video, light and installation. Drawing from the realms of art history, science and technology, he examines how systems of knowledge shape our perception of time and reality. His works translate complex information into visual and sensory experience, revealing the connections between order, chaos and human interpretation.
This is his second collaboration with Phileas, following his participation at Bienal Photoimagen, Dominican Republic in 2022.
This project was aided by a research trip to Vienna by the curator Allison Glenn, organised by Phileas in July 2025.
