Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto

Housed in the stately 1817 Georgian Grange house—the oldest brick house in Toronto—and subsequent expansions, the AGO is home to a who’s who of European masters; van Dyck, Degas, Gainsborough, Rodin, Monet, Cézanne, van Gogh, Picasso and Magritte are all represented, and a significant 40,000-item photography collection is on show at the nearly 600,000-square-foot gallery. The comprehensive Contemporary collection spans 1960 to today and takes up the top two lofty floors with works by Warhol, Wall, Jungen and even Yoko Ono, so start at Walker Court and take the stairs up to the 5th floor. There’s a lovely coffee space on the south side of the 5th floor, which nobody seems to know about, with gluten and gluten-free treats. But many visitors to Ontario’s prestigious gallery don’t come to see the art. They come to see the architecture. Toronto’s own Frank Gehry designed an incredible new look and feel, revealed in 2008, with a dramatic Baroque staircase, swathes of Douglas fir and glass sheets.

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