CONTACT Photography Festival 2026 Reveals Highlights Of Its 30th Anniversary

CONTACT Photography Festival has announced highlights of the 30th edition of its annual citywide event spanning the month of May 2026. CONTACT is a Toronto-based festival dedicated to exhibiting, analyzing, and celebrating photography and lens-based media. The Festival provides numerous opportunities to experience a diverse range of exhibitions in neighbourhoods across greater Toronto, and to take in hundreds of events including openings, lectures, artist talks, book reviews, workshops, and more, forging creative connections and sparking engagements.

The 2026 Core Program features curated Exhibitions and Public Art Installations highlighting projects by Canadian and International Artists and photographers, developed both independently and in partnership with numerous local and international arts and cultural organizations. In 2026, lens-based and mixed-media works examine subjects including decolonial practices, community-building, migration, looking backwards and looking forward, activism, mourning and loss, personal and collective memory, politics and poetics, and feature explorations in new media as well as a return to early photographic practices and experimentation.

The preliminary list of artists featured across the Core Program includes Ernesto Cabral de Luna, Delali Cofie, Marlene Creates, Larry Fink, Tim Georgeson, Hassan Hajjaj, April Hickox, Risa Horowitz, Spring Hurlbut, Alvin Luong, Arnaud Maggs, Thandiwe Muriu, Lu Pan, Celia Perrin Sidarous, Dawit L. Petros, Yann Pocreau, Jessica Slipp, Sheida Soleimani, Adam Swica, Ho Tam, Sin Wai Kin, Bo Wang, and Ian Wilms.

CONTACT's Core Program of Exhibitions and Public Art Installations are developed through collaborations with partners across Toronto and beyond, including: Aga Khan Museum; Artexte; Peel Art Gallery, Museum and Archives; Artspace Gallery; BAND Gallery; Blouin Division; Capture Photography Festival; Daniel Faria Gallery; Towards Gallery; Goethe-Institut Toronto; The Image Centre; John B. Aird Gallery; McMichael Canadian Art Collection; Mercer Union; Onsite Gallery; Pattison Outdoor Advertising; Paul Petro Contemporary Art; Patel Brown; Reel Asian Film Festival; Prefix ICA; Sankofa Square; Stephen Bulger Gallery; Sur Gallery; United Contemporary, among others. Complete programming details will be announced in April.

Photo: Dawit L. Petros, Colourscape, Coordinate #1, (Harlem, NY), 2009, pigment print. Courtesy of the artist and Bradley Ertaskiran, Montreal.