Visit MOCA Toronto this fall to see Pyhllida Barlow's Eleven Columns.​​

For more than 50 years, British artist Phyllida Barlow took inspiration from her surroundings to create imposing installations that can be at once menacing and playful. She created anti-monumental sculptures from inexpensive, low-grade materials such as cardboard, fabric, plywood, polystyrene, scrim and cement. These constructions were often painted in industrial or vibrant colours, the seams of their construction left at times visible, revealing the means of their making.

Barlow passed away in early 2023, at which point she was working closely with MOCA on a site-specific installation. Having visited the building some years earlier, Barlow was taken by its industrial vigour and, in particular, the arresting columns paced throughout the museum’s Ground Floor.

This exhibition brings together select works that Barlow had referenced in discussion with the team and acknowledges her love of the museum’s distinct architecture with the inclusion of, untitled: eleven columns; standing, fallen, broken, 2011. Additionally, a collection of works on paper, an integral part of her practice, shares with visitors a small but varied archive of Barlow’s broader work with invented forms, use of materials and colour.