Sunday Best brings Black style history to Toronto in AGO world debut

The Art Gallery of Ontario will give Toronto the first look at Sunday Best: The Power & The Glory of Black Style when member access begins Oct. 7, ahead of the exhibition’s public opening Oct. 13.

Making its world debut at the AGO, Sunday Best traces Black diasporic self-fashioning from the 1880s to the present through fashion, photography, painting, accessories, ephemera and time-based media. The AGO says the exhibition brings together more than 50 garments with works and objects drawn from collections in North America, the United Kingdom, Europe and the Caribbean.

The exhibition is conceived and curated by Julie Crooks, the AGO’s curator of Arts of Global Africa & the Diaspora, and Jason Cyrus, associate lecturer at London College of Fashion, with Amanda Bock of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Clare Sauro of Drexel University. It is organized by the AGO and the Philadelphia Museum of Art and will travel to Philadelphia in spring 2027.

Crooks has placed the project within histories of enslavement, religious life, migration and liberation, describing Black style in the AGO’s exhibition announcement through its relationship to resistance and self-determination. The exhibition is organized into five sections — Origins, Church, Migration, Liberation, and Call & Response — and moves between historical material, contemporary fashion and visual art rather than treating clothing as a separate design story.

Canadian creators are part of the exhibition

The Toronto debut has a substantial Canadian component inside the exhibition itself, with looks by Toronto-based designer Spencer Badu among the garments selected for Sunday Best and cocktail dresses by Greta Constantine also included. The Toronto-based label was founded by Kirk Pickersgill and Stephen Wong and is now designed by Pickersgill, who was born in Jamaica and raised in Canada.

Toronto photographer Jorian Charlton is represented among the artists whose work appears alongside the garments. Charlton was born in Toronto and works in the city, with a practice focused on portraiture, Black culture and Caribbean diasporic experience.

Portrait artist Gordon Shadrach is also included in the exhibition. Shadrach was born and raised in Brampton and has lived in Toronto for more than 25 years; his work has frequently examined race, clothing and the way dress affects how people are read in public space.

Those Canadian contributors sit within a much wider roster that includes designers Christopher John Rogers, Bianca Saunders and Rachel Scott, and artists including Derrick Adams, Rashid Johnson, Gordon Parks and Amy Sherald.

Toronto programming extends beyond the galleries

The AGO is also extending Sunday Best beyond the galleries through a series of Toronto-based fashion and arts programs. Some of those participants are involved in related programming or retail rather than the exhibition itself.

Beginning Oct. 6, the AGO Shop will carry capsule collections by three Toronto-based designers: Spencer Badu, Colette Harmon and Omi Woods. Badu is also represented in Sunday Best itself; the AGO announcement identifies Harmon and Woods in connection with the shop capsule collections.

On Oct. 16, Greta Constantine will mark its 20th anniversary with a runway show in Walker Court as part of the Sunday Best opening performance. Toronto-based vocal group Echo Collective, led by creative producer and vocalist Kiara Lauren Picart, will perform live. The event runs from 6 to 9 p.m. and is included with general admission.

Further programming includes Art of Crochet and Jazz with Legin Knits on Nov. 6, a social maker night inspired by the exhibition, and a Nov. 18 panel featuring Pickersgill alongside designers Rachel Scott and Christopher John Rogers. Fashion editor and publisher Suzanne Boyd will moderate the discussion.

Sunday Best: The Power & The Glory of Black Style is on view on Level 5 of the Art Gallery of Ontario through Feb. 28, 2027. AGO Members have advance access from Oct. 7 to 12, and public access begins Oct. 13. The exhibition is included with general admission.

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