Tyler Durbano
Traces
January 17, 2026 - March 29, 2026
“Queerness as a way of being in the world weaves the singularity of desire, pleasure, and grief with social histories. It is an aesthetic disposition: a way of knowing that comes from the senses. Queerness is an open-ended politics that, at its best, moves towards liberation and plurality. It is a lens; a way of seeing and moving.”
Francisco-Fernando Granados, from Tyler Durbano: Fascinate, 2023
Through analog photography and drawing, Tyler Durbano explores the thresholds between form and feeling, presence and absence. This ongoing body of work stems from a practical response to making that evolved during the pandemic. On walks through Simcoe County and Barrie, Durbano searches for moments of recognition in the landscape. With a Polaroid camera in hand, they capture places where desire paths and compressed grass document alternate routes; a cartography of bodies seeking places of difference, refuge, calm, seclusion, or convenience. Their practice is rooted in slow observation and intuitive engagement with place, mapping atmospheres, latent histories, and ephemeral traces of queer life in suburban and rural locations. Through iterative and responsive pencil crayon drawings and Polaroid photographs, they reframe overlooked sites as spaces of quiet power and potential, often evoking the intuitive and interpretive nature of cruising.
Through the analog technology of the Polaroid, chance and patience become part of the making. The print is the negative, the material of light captured. What is installed is what was there: exposed, developed, and handled at the site. Mounted in changing constellations with intuitively rendered pencil crayon compositions, these diary Durbano’s research-driven exploration of queer spatiality.
This project is supported by an Exhibition Assistance Grant through the Ontario Arts Council
Tyler Durbano (he/they) is a queer visual artist and cultural worker based in Barrie, Ontario, on Treaties 16 and 18 Territory. They hold a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Western Ontario, and undergraduate degrees from Acadia University and NSCAD University. Their interdisciplinary practice locates a queer ethos and intuition embedded in the regular, within and beyond erotic tropes associated with queer art.
As a visual artist, Durbano’s work has been exhibited throughout Ontario and Nova Scotia, including at ArtLab at Western University (London, ON), the Anna Leonowens Gallery (Halifax, NS), the Georgian College Campus Gallery (Barrie, ON), and Eyelevel Gallery (Halifax, NS). In 2014, Durbano completed a year-long community studio residency with the Town of New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. In 2018, they won the Juror’s Prize for Innovation during the inaugural TD Wealth | Thor Wealth Management Art Prize. In May 2019, they travelled with Ed Video (Guelph) to participate in Art Fair Suomi.
As a cultural worker, he has been an instructor in Design and Visual Arts at Georgian College, and was Curator at Latcham Art Centre, Stouffville, ON, from 2022-2024. Their writing has accompanied exhibitions in Ontario and the Yukon. In 2024, their exhibition Continuous Memory (featuring Max Lupo & José Andrés Mora) received the Exhibition of the Year Award, budget under $10,000, from Galleries Ontario (GOG); in 2025, their exhibition like heirlooms (featuring Morris Lum, Joy Wong, and Stephanie Yee) was shortlisted for the same award. Tyler is currently Artistic Director at the MacLaren Art Centre.
Events
17
Opening Reception: Cole Swanson, Tyler Durbano
Saturday, January 17, 2026 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
More Exhibitions With Tyler Durbano
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