Main Gallery
Diane Borsato
Year of the Whale
Project type
Exhibition
Date
May 7th to June 20th, 2027
Exhibition opening
May 7th, 17 h
Website
https://www.dianeborsato.net/The project
Year of the Whale
In Year of the Whale, Diane Borsato presents a series of new
works under the title of the classic book by Victor B. Scheffer (1969), documenting a
North Atlantic whale calf’s development and migration, from both ecological and
aesthetic perspectives. Her own works will be exploring the cultures of encounters with
whales, efforts at communicating with them, and how our stories and relationships to
whales shape our views of nature as a resource for extraction. Borsato’s new works
explore how these animals are culturally represented, and ask what it means when we
yearn for connection with them. Year of the Whale also attempts to grapple
with the environmental anxieties and griefs that are inextricably linked to the subject of
these enormous, intelligent beings with whom we share a world.
About the artist
Diane Borsato
Diane Borsato is an award-winning artist, writer, amateur mycologist, orchardist
and beekeeper who has worked closely with other artists and naturalists,
including co-ordinating a day-long foraging and stargazing event for mushroomers and astronomers (Terrestrial/Celestial), creating a performance of silence and stillness with 100 beekeepers (Your Temper, My Weather), and planting a rare community apple orchard as public art (ORCHARD), and regularly leads mushroom forays for galleries and museums, along with many other multidisciplinary projects.
She has performed and exhibited across Canada at venues including the Art
Gallery of Ontario, The Power Plant, the AGYU, the Art Museum at the University
of Toronto, the Walter Philips Gallery at the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Esker
Foundation, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the National Art Centre, Fogo Island Arts
and at the Toronto Biennial of Art; and internationally at galleries and museums
around the world.
Her books include: Outdoor School: Contemporary Environmental Art (2021) co-
edited with Amish Morrell, MUSHROOMING: The Joy of the Quiet Hunt (2022),
and the artist book Snakes in the Library (2025) together with Alexandra Carter.
Her new book about contemporary art for children What is a Sculpture? will be
published by Tundra Books (PRH) in fall of 2026. Diane Borsato is also Associate
Professor at the University of Guelph where she teaches courses exploring
social, site-responsive and environmental art practices. She lives and works in
Toronto.