Ali Cherri: To Fall, Patiently
Gairloch Gardens & Centennial Square
Opening Reception: Saturday, June 13, 2026
2:00–5:00 PM
Exhibition Opening at Centennial Square
2:00–5:00 PM
Exhibition Opening Reception and Remarks in Gairloch Gardens
All are welcome
Admission is Free
Need a ride from Toronto? Join the Summer 2026 ARTbus.
Ali Cherri (b. 1976, Beirut) is a Paris-based artist with three decades of artistic practice spanning across film, performance, sculpture, painting, drawing, and installation. Highly influenced by the Lebanese postwar art scene, Ali Cherri’s complex body of work interrogates how histories and currencies of political violence resonate through generations as well as cultural landscapes and objects. Awarded the Silver Lion at the 2022 Venice Biennale, and exhibited in leading museums around the world, Cherri presents films, sculptures and watercolour paintings in both our galleries as well as in Gairloch Gardens.
At the Gairloch Gallery, Ali Cherri presents a series of sculptures, assembled elegantly between different materials, each a hybrid involving artifacts found by the artist in auctions or marketplaces, originating from different eras and cultural origins. Adjacent to the sculptures is a series of watercolour paintings of prickly-pear cacti, contrasting the plants' sharp thorns with their radiant blooms, a shifting metaphor for trauma, violence and endurance under duress in conflict zones, both historical and current. The film Of Men and Gods and Mud explores the relationship between people, labour, and the environment in North Sudan. Installed outdoors in the sculpture garden is the bronze sculpture The Tree of Life, which reinterprets ancient Assyrian reliefs of a sacred tree, and the neon sculpture Les (Sur)Vivants, which poetically references the perils of surviving catastrophe.
At the Centennial Gallery, Ali Cherri presents the hypnotic film The Watchman, which features a soldier on watch before the no-man’s land in Cyprus between the Greek Cypriot south and the Turkish Cypriot north. As with much of Cherri’s work, the film concerns itself with notions of borders and the challenges they enact upon ideas of sovereignty, identity, and geopolitical realities.
Shuttle Bus Service
We are pleased to offer complimentary shuttle service for guests attending our exhibition opening. To make your visit more convenient, we encourage you to park your car at Centennial and take advantage of the shuttle service, which will run between both gallery locations.
Departure from Centennial Square: 2:30 PM and 4:00 PM
Departure from Gairloch Gardens: 3:15 PM and 4:45 PM
Check the schedule below for details:
2:30 PM: Leave Centennial Square
2:45 PM: Arrive Gairloch Gardens
3:15 PM: Leave Gairloch Gardens
3:30 PM: Arrive Centennial Square
4:00 PM: Leave Centennial Square
4:15 PM: Arrive Gairloch Gardens
4:45 PM: Leave Gairloch Gardens (Last shuttle service)
5:00 PM: Arrive Centennial Square
Parking Notice
Parking at Gairloch Gardens is only possible at the public parking lot at 1308 Lakeshore Rd E or on a side street (Caincroft Road or Colonial Cres). Parking at the galleries is otherwise restricted due to our free shuttle buses and disabled parking. We encourage you to please take the free shuttle. We thank you in advance for your understanding.
