Installation view of Jeff Wall, Photographs 1984–2023, MOCA, 2025. Photo: Phil Anderson
Visitors are given the special opportunity to explore renowned photographer Jeff Wall’s “picture making” while viewing 50 of his images spread through the three floors of MOCA. This wonderful exhibition was curated by MOCA Executive Director, Kathleen Bartels who is familiar with Wall’s artwork ever since she worked at the Art Gallery of Vancouver.
Curator Kathleen Bartels. Photo: Phil Anderson
Wall, who has exhibited around the world, rarely exhibits more than once in each city. Toronto viewers are fortunate that he’s come back here following his AGO show in the 90’s. The present survey covers 30 years of work spanning his use of digital images, colour prints, large scale lightbox transparencies and black and white photographs. Wall is indeed a pioneer in photographic experimentation and this is the largest exhibition of his work in Canada.
Wall sees himself as a composer when it comes to photography. He witnesses life and sometimes recreates those moments. Occasionally it is more a matter of composition than documentation. He is a constant observer of everyday life. There is a narrative in his work, though not politically driven. He enjoys his freedom of expression in capturing moments and sharing them.
Jeff Wall. Photo: Phil Anderson
As an art student in the 1960’s, he studied painting and drawing. Later he travelled to Europe, visiting art museums and he often references art in his photographs. Viewers can read in their own narrative while looking at Wall’s work, though he definitely has something personal to say in works like Mimic, that capture a moment of racism that Wall witnessed and recreated with actors.
The exhibition starts on the main floor of MOCA with a series of nine round transparencies in lightboxes titled Children (1988). These are portraits of children from diverse cultures with different cloud formations as backgrounds. Their presence hanging high on the walls of MOCA gives them a look of empowerment.
While in Europe, he witnessed the use of backlit lightbox transparencies in advertising and he started to use that technique in his series of new photographs. In Boy falls from tree (2010) we wonder if Wall witnessed a similar event or experienced such an incident himself. The boy photoshopped into the scene has been done with such precision that the viewer wonders if it may really have happened.
Boy falls from tree, 2010, lightbox transparency, 61-5/8 x 67-3/8 inch. Courtesy of the artist. Edition of 3 + 1 AP. ©Jeff Wall. Courtesy of MOCA
In another inkjet print, In the legion (2022), a patron does a backflip in the bar surrounded by drinking witnesses. Again, the viewer is caught off guard trying to image themselves in such a room.
In the legion, 2022, Inkjet Print, 63-3/4 x 80 inch. Edition of 3 + 1AP. ©Jeff Wall. Courtesy of MOCA
Other works such as Volunteer (1996), a black and white gelatin silver print, documents the mundane, with a man mopping the floor of what could be a waiting room. There are darker works in the exhibition such as Dead troops talk (1992), that shows the aftermath of a Red Army Patrol ambushed near Moqor, Afghanistan, in the winter of 1986. An art critic was overheard to say it was one of their favourites in the exhibit. A rather grim scene of troops in the mud; some looking deceased while one is playfully holding a rat in the face of another soldier. This piece is powerfully daunting and heavy with historical narrative.
Dead troops talk, 1992, lightbox transparency, 90-1/4 x 164-1/4 inch. Edition of 2 + 1AP. ©Jeff Wall. Private Collection. Courtesy of MOCA
Another favourite of mine was The Guitarist (1987), a lightbox transparency of two young teens squatting and jamming in a graffiti-filled tiny room. In front of the nightclub (2006), is another large lightbox transparency that seems like a scene one might stumble upon in most cities with young people trying to get into a club or deciding not to. It invites the viewer into the work, perhaps remembering their own experience of being in such a lineup.
In front of the club, 2006, lightbox transparency, 89 x142 inch. Edition of 3 + 1AP. ©Jeff Wall. Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, gift of Katherine S. Schamberg. Courtesy of MOCA
Jeff Wall’s exhibit gives the art viewer much to explore and think about in this monumental survey of his work. The exhibit invites a second viewing to further ponder the poetic and captivating images Wall has shared with us.
Phil Anderson
*Exhibition information: Jeff Wall, Photographs 1984–2023, October 19, 2025 – March 26, 2026, Museum of Contemporary Art, 158 Sterling Rd, Toronto. Museum hours: Wed – Thu 11 am – 5 pm, Fri 12 – 9 pm, Sat – Sun 10 am – 5 pm.