We are thrilled to announce that the National Gallery of Canada has commissioned a monumental new public artwork by internationally acclaimed artist Alicja Kwade. The sculpture, the artist’s most ambitious to date, is developed in partnership with the Lassonde Art Trail and will debut on LAT in spring 2027.

Alicja Kwade is internationally recognized for sculptures and installations that use simple materials in surprising ways, encouraging viewers to rethink their ideas about time, space, and reality.

“Toronto was the first major city on the continent I experienced, and it left a lasting impression on me. I perceive it as a city with a strong proximity to nature, to water, and to green spaces, while at the same time being clearly constructed, conceived, and rising vertically,” said artist Alicja Kwade. “I find it essential that art in public space is truly accessible to everyone, that people can encounter it unexpectedly, even stumble upon it, and are invited to engage with it. This work has been a long‑held wish for many years, and I am incredibly happy to see it materialize in dialogue with this public space.”

This landmark project reflects the NGC’s commitment to expanding public access to art across the country and is part of its growing National Engagement initiative, which aims to bring artworks from its collection, along with newly commissioned pieces, into everyday public life.

The commission deepens the NGC’s partnership with LAT, whose launch program also includes the loan of a sculpture by British artist Tracey Emin from the museum's collection. This early collaboration between the NGC and LAT signals a shared commitment to expanding access to art in public spaces.

Born in Poland and based in Berlin, Kwade is recognized for her sculptures and installations that use simple materials in surprising ways, encouraging viewers to rethink their ideas of time, space and reality. Kwade has exhibited widely at institutions including Louisiana Museum, Humlebæk; Whitechapel Gallery, London; MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, MA; Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, Berlin; Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Espoo; and Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich.

Over the past years, she has increasingly worked in the public realm, creating vast installations that respond to the architecture and the natural phenomena of various sites. In 2019, Kwade was commissioned to create a monumental installation for the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Two sculptures made of steel and enormous spherical rocks to evoke a solar system settled temporarily above Manhattan’s skyline. For her 2022 installation Au Cours Des Mondes on Place Vendôme in Paris the artist set a dialogue between natural stone globes affixed to endless concrete stairs and a set of natural stone spheres. Both works explore our place in the world, underlying mechanisms of power and our relationship to knowledge thereof. Other notable installations include a 2022 participation at Desert X AlUla and an acclaimed presentation at the 57th Venice Biennale Viva Arte Viva in 2017.