MOCA Toronto’s comprehensive exhibition charts four decades of the photography of Jeff Wall, one of Canada’s most influential living artists, and marks his first major Canadian survey in over 25 years, and his first in Toronto in 35 years. Spanning all three floors of the museum, it includes light box transparencies, black and white photographs, and colour prints.

An internationally celebrated artist, Wall is best known for his large-scale lightboxes and his pioneering approach to photography. Since the 1960s, he has profoundly influenced the art form through his bold experimentation with scale, texture, colour, subject matter, and production techniques, redefining the possibilities of the medium. Highlighting photographs composed in Canada, the exhibition invites visitors to explore the history, evolution, and future of lens-based art in this country. At a time of renewed Canadian focus, it celebrates the powerful and enduring role photography has played in contributing to the nation’s cultural identity.

Visitors are welcomed on Floor 1 by Children, a group of circular portraits depicting children from diverse cultural backgrounds. Set against dramatic cloud formations, the children are elevated to positions of power typically reserved for adults and heroic figures. This series is anchored by Young Man Wet with Rain — a larger-than-life, meticulously staged portrait that adds intensity to the floor’s opening experience. On Floors 2 and 3, Wall’s works unfold in a loose and poetic chronological order, tracing recurring themes such as the tension between reality and fiction, social marginalization, and the quiet dignity of everyday life. Even his most unsettling images — depicting struggle or landscapes fouled by thoughtless behaviour — possess a haunting beauty and strength.