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One of Toronto’s most familiar public spaces is set to take on a new rhythm this February. As part of Black History Month 2026, Toronto Union presents A Kind of Order, a major multi-site public art exhibition developed in partnership with BAND Gallery. Opening February 12, the exhibition invites commuters and visitors to encounter contemporary Black art woven directly into the everyday flow of Union Station.

Curated by Joséphine Denis, A Kind of Order features new and existing works by Timothy Yanick Hunter, Aaron Jones, Thato Toeba, and Hazelle Palmer. Together, their practices explore movement, migration, and transformation, themes deeply connected to Union Station’s identity as one of the country’s busiest civic crossroads

Art encountered in motion

Union Station is defined by arrivals and departures, anticipation and routine. Rather than asking audiences to stop and stay, A Kind of Order meets people mid-journey. Installed across the West Wing, Oak Room, façade banners, and lower-level storefronts, the exhibition unfolds in fragments, offering moments of pause that resonate long after the viewer has moved on.

Denis frames transit as more than physical passage. In this exhibition, movement becomes an emotional and imaginative state, shaped by memory, longing, and possibility. Drawing inspiration from Dionne Brand’s What We All Long For, the works encourage viewers to reflect on what it means to exist between destinations, between past and future, between personal and collective histories.

Four artists, four ways of seeing

Before encountering the individual installations, it helps to understand the shared language that connects them. Collage operates throughout the exhibition as both method and metaphor. Fragments of history, image, architecture, and self are assembled into new forms of relation and belonging, mirroring the layered realities of diasporic life.

• Timothy Yanick Hunter, presented in the West Wing, works across moving image, photography, and archival remix. His installations treat the archive as a starting point rather than a fixed record, opening space for speculative diasporic futures and alternate histories.

• Aaron Jones, whose large-scale works appear on the station’s façade banners, uses analog and digital collage to build bold visual narratives. Designed to catch the eye in passing, his compositions reward repeat encounters, revealing new details over time.

• Thato Toeba transforms the Oak Room through site-specific photomontage and sculptural cut-outs. Their work traces how bodies and architecture choreograph movement through urban space, presenting the city as something continuously under construction.

• Hazelle Palmer, installed in the lower-level storefronts, layers pattern, texture, and figuration in richly coloured collage paintings. Drawing from cinematic imagery, her work frames wayfinding as a lived, imperfect, and deeply personal process.

Designed for everyday encounter

Accessibility is central to the exhibition’s design. Clear wall texts introduce each installation, while QR codes link to deeper digital content for those who want to spend more time with the work. The goal is immediate entry with slow release, allowing meaning to unfold across multiple encounters rather than demanding sustained attention in a single moment.

This approach reflects Union Station’s role as a shared civic space, where art becomes part of daily life rather than a destination in itself. As commuters navigate disruption, rerouting, and return, the exhibition mirrors those rhythms back to them, offering reflection within movement rather than outside it.

A Black History Month lived in public

Presented during Black History Month and supported by TD Bank Group, A Kind of Order underscores the power of public art to amplify Black creative voices in spaces that reach broad, diverse audiences. By situating contemporary Black Canadian art within one of Toronto’s most trafficked environments, the exhibition expands how and where cultural engagement can happen.

Rather than marking Black history as something separate or contained, the exhibition embeds it into the city’s everyday pulse. It becomes part of how people move, wait, notice, and remember, reinforcing the idea that Black histories and futures are inseparable from the life of the city itself.

As February unfolds, A Kind of Order offers an invitation that feels both gentle and profound. Pay attention. Let yourself wander, even briefly. In the in-between spaces of Union Station, new forms of understanding are quietly taking shape.

Exhibition details
Opening: February 12, 2026
Location: Union Station, West Wing, Oak Room, façade banners, and lower-level storefronts
Admission: Free
Hours: Daily during station operating hours