Archive for the ‘public art’ Category

return to Lawrence West

Posted: November 22, 2015 in graffiti and street art, locations, public art
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As promised a few blog posts ago, I went back to take more photos of the now complete mural on the underpass on Lawrence Avenue just west of Caledonia.  It was painted by Essencia Art Collective (Shalak Attack, Fiyabruxa and Brunosmoky).

part of a larger mural on the side of an underpass, road and sidewalk in front of the photo, houses behind - a larger than life sized head of a tiger, an elephant, and a bird with a colourful beak

mural by Essencia Art Collective of golden pyraminds with elephants walking amongst them and eagles and macaws flying above them.

street art picture of a red and blue macaw flying over pyramids, its painted beside a set of stairs so it looks like the bird is flying up the staircase

part of a larger mural on the side of an underpass, road and sidewalk in front of the photo, houses behind - looking at an angle back at the mural, Egyptian pyramids painted beside the stairs that go from the sidewalk to the houses above. Also a painted camel with a bright patterned blanket on its back.

part of a larger mural on the side of an underpass, road and sidewalk in front of the photo, houses behind - a creature with a deer skull and antlers as head with a vulture sitting on its shoulder. Background scenery is dead land with an oil derrick on it.

part of a mural by Essencia Art Collective on Lawrence West in Toronto showing the drastic possible environmental effects of not looking after the planet - dead animals, dead oil fields, dead trees, over exploitation of the Earth

part of a mural by Essencia Art Collective on Lawrence West in Toronto showing the drastic possible environmental effects of not looking after the planet - dead forest, dead city

part of a mural by Essencia Art Collective on Lawrence West in Toronto showing the drastic possible environmental effects of not looking after the planet - a black and crumbling city with the CN Tower looking like it's about to fall down

part of a mural by Essencia Art Collective on Lawrence West in Toronto showing the drastic possible environmental effects of not looking after the planet - a person covered in a grey suit and wearing a gas mask in front of a decaying and falling down city

mural of a person praying, hands together, eyes closed, wearing a purple shawl over their head

mural with people, city life and comment on mistreatment of the environment

car driving under a bridge and past a mural painted on the walls of the underpass, two large green women's faces tilted upwards with eyes closed

street art mural of a turtle swimming by some lily pads in the water, as seen from below

a man cycles past a large mural, two very large green faces are in the foreground

part of a mural on an underpass, under the bridge, large cobs of corn and a bright dragonfly

close up of big eyes on an insect, part of a mural

looking eastward along a long horizontal mural painted beside a city street

close up of part of a mural by Essencia Art Collective of a woman with a flower in her hair and a leaf shaped ear ring, mother nature like, beside a large fox.

part of a mural painted on an underpass - the nose of a very large fox plus two tiny houses on stilts above turbulent water, night sky

part of a larger mural, a boy is sitting at the back of a large wood boat, he is fishing, the boat is in a large bubble

part of a large mural on an underpass in Toronto painted be Essencia Art Collective, an old man with white hair, beard and mustache and wearing a wool hat is holding a paper cup that has fire and steam coming out of it. A bird is sitting on his shoulder

part of a street art mural - three animals, a warthog with spikey back, a deer, and another animal with antlers and a roundish face

a large warthog animal in a street art mural

a large owl in a mural

looking along a sidewalk where there is alarge mural, a very large owl is looking at you, other animals in the background.

street art mural, metaphorical heart of the Earth is being ripped out of the water

part of a large mural with an environmental theme - a brown bear stands beside a small waterfall in the midst of a lush green place

part of a mural with an environment theme, a polar bear is standing beside a red and white ship that is frozen in the arctic ice.

arctic scenes as part of a larger street art mural on an underpass in Toronto - polar bears walking on ice, with an iceberg behind them.

arctic scenes as part of a larger street art mural on an underpass in Toronto - a person in a purple parka holding a little tree, standing in ice between two polar bears

arctic scenes as part of a larger street art mural on an underpass in Toronto - a man in a parka with a fur lined hood looks down the road towards the rest of the mural

part of a street art mural, three people bundled up in fur lined parkas in a winter scene

Love or Love

Posted: November 21, 2015 in graffiti and street art, locations, public art
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I drove the back streets to Yorkdale yesterday.  It’s not something that I normally do; in fact I can’t remember the last time I drove those streets.   But I’m glad I did because I found another mural painted on an underpass.  Four sections of concrete wall,  four words in bright colours – Love, Home, Limitless, Heights.

part of a mural on an underpass. There are four parts to the mural and each part is word painted in large capital letters in many colours - the word love, actually it is love or love

Home – just to the right of the word ‘home’ was a large heart that unfortunately I missed when I took the next photo.  There was also a sign describing the story behind the mural.

This community mural was painted by youth from the neighbourhood, Rocco Ursino, Salim Yislam, Michelle Collin, Jaden Beckford, Tamika Smart, and Hassan Mohamed under the mentorship of Sean Martindale and Joshua Barndt.  Apparently it was inspired by a popular local expression “Love or Love” and tries to convey compassion, hopefulness and determination.  Needed sentiments as this neighbourhood undergoes major changes and revitalization.

part of a mural on an underpass. There are four parts to the mural and each part is word painted in large capital letters in many colours - the word home

This 2012 project was produced by Art Starts in partnership with Toronto Community Housing and office of councillor Josh Colle. Funding was provided by StreetARToronto and TCH.

part of a mural on an underpass. There are four parts to the mural and each part is word painted in large capital letters in many colours - the word limitless

The mural is on Ranee Avenue as it passes under the Allen Expressway.  It is also right by the south entrance to Yorkdale subway station.

part of a mural on an underpass. There are four parts to the mural and each part is word painted in large capital letters in many colours - the word heights, with the south end of Yorkdale subway station in the picture

When I parked my car I saw this telephone pole – Shoot for the stars.  Great advice!

Telephone pole with the bottom metre and a half painted blue with some yellow stars and the words Shoot for the stars.

And because one thing  always leads to another, I was parked on Flemington Road beside this – the remains of Zachary Court.

A small street with some mature trees growing beside it. There are a few rowhouses but the windows and doors are all boarded up.

The street is fenced off and the houses are empty.  Some of the windows are missing but most are boarded up.  This must be the neighbourhood redevelopment referred to in the description of the mural, or at least part of it.

rowhouses boarded up and fenced off in preparation for demolition

An old sign for community notices that is now empty because the area is fenced off for demolition

The end house in a row house complex has been started to be demolished.

There was another telephone pole with a happy picture painted on it but looking a little worn.

A telephone pole that has been painted on the bottom few feet. A bright blue sky with a cloud and a few birds flying, green grass and a couple of yellow flowers standing tall

There are two development proposal signs posted on Ranee Avenue that pertain to this area.  One of them is for a seven unit, three storey townhouse development on Ranee Avenue itself.  The other is for the demolition and replacement of 233 social housing units as well as the construction of 824 market value units serviced by a new public street.  The latter development involves a number of streets besides Zachary Court on both sides of the Allen Expressway (Zachary Court backs onto the west side of the Allen).

 

mosaic people

Posted: November 20, 2015 in public art
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The other day I came across an interesting mosaic of which the picture below is just one part.  There is a plaque beside it which says “Seen at a disance the mosaic reveals a crowd of people sheering and clapping, people of all backgrounds, which is the unique mix of Toronto.  Up close, the images dissolve into abstract patterns of colour and light.”.

close up of a mural made of mosaic pieces, people seated in an arena is the subject of the mural

The mural is called ‘A Small Piece of Something Larger’ and it was designed by Stephen Andrews and fabricated in Montreal by Mosaika Art.  It is made of smalti (hand cut mosaic glass), gold tiles and hand glazed ceramic tiles.

close up of a mosaic by Stephen Andrews with his signature on it.

I’d love to show you a picture of the whole thing but I can’t.  The piece is located in the taxi drop off and valet parking area of the Trump International Hotel.   I dodged cars while I took these photos.   The wall that it is on looks cheap, especially with the dreary doorway that cuts into the mosaic.  Another strike against this piece is the very yellow nature of the lighting in this space. I played with the colour balance on the photo below to try to capture the true colour of the artwork.

mosiac art on a wall with a doorway in the middle of it

It really deserves a better location.

parking entrance and valet parking at Trump International Hotel in Toronto. A blue taxi has just pulled in, a yellowish hue in the interior of the space
The above picture was taken from the NE corner of Bay and Adelaide.
Just a few steps west on Adelaide is this mosiac (look up!):

Five vertical panels of mosaics above the entrance of a downtown building, much taller buildings are on either side of it and behind it. Bell Canada building on Adelaide West, mosaics by York Wilson, communication theme public art

It is above the entrance to the Bell Canada Building at 76 Adelaide West.  Five panels, each twenty feet tall and five feet high, of glass mosaic tile are embedded in the cement of the building.  It was designed by York Wilson and installed in 1965 when the building was constructed.

The theme of the piece is communication and each panel represents a different form of communication.   From left to right: writing, drawing, music, voice, and satellites.

five vertical panels of mosaic in bright colours on an exterior wall

Staying on Adelaide, walk east again but continue to Yonge Street.  Here you can find another hidden, almost secret, mosaic that many people have walked past and never seen.  Find the silly little entrance way to what is called the Dynamic Funds Tower on the SE corner of Yonge and Adelaide.  Stand outside the entrance but don’t go in.  Now look up.

glass mosaic ceiling that is almost circular, octagonal but the sides are not equal width.

Three very different mosaics all within a few steps of each other.

….and there’s one last stop on our mosaic tour.  It’s not a mosaic but looking at Stephen Andrews’ work at the Trump Hotel reminded me of a sculpture.  If you walk down Yonge Street, just south of the railway tracks you’ll find a bronze ‘Immigrant Family’ by Tom Otterness.

Immigrant Family, a sculpture by Tom Otterness, a father mother and baby in arms.
A roly poly mother, father and baby in arms.  A bit cartoonish but vague enough that they represent no one immigrant group.  They could be any piece in the mosaic that is Toronto.

close up of a sculpture by Tom Otterness of a family of three, mother, father and baby in arms. Father is carrying a suitcase. Title of sculpture is Immigrant Family

With a shoutout to Penny at Walking Woman since it was because of her blog post that I learned about the Otterness sculpture.

Other links:

 

in-between at Ontario Square

Posted: November 11, 2015 in public art
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‘In-Between Worlds’ is a series of photographs by Canadian photographer Meryl McMaster.   This series centres around the role of McMaster’s dual heritage in her search for self;  The images represent her being part of, and also being between, two different cultures as she is part Cree and part ‘European’.

Three of the images are on display at Ontario Square by Queens Quay West and Lower Simcoe St.

below: Horse Dance.  The bright red and blue of the shaggy hobby horses against a winter landscape makes for an eye catching picture.  On closer look, you realize that there is a person’s head inside one of those horses’s head.  Heads that have no eyes to see or mouths to speak.

A large photograph of three red hobby horses with long blue mane, taken outside in the winter in the snow, with bare trees in the background. A mix of the real (outdoors) and the unreal (hobby horses instead of real horses). Photo is Mounted on a concrete wall outside.

below: Wingeds Calling.  Around the corner there is another picture of a person in costume, playing the role of a real, yet not real, animal.  A large black bird-like figure walks on the frozen ground, perhaps too big and awkward to fly.

A photograph Mounted on a concrete wall outside of a person draped in a large black cape and wearing a head piece that looks like a large black bird. Photo taken outside in winter so the background is all white and grey like a foggy winter day.,

below: Wind Play Variation.  The third picture baffles me a bit.  Although this is another picture of a person assuming a role,  this time the creature is totally of the artist’s imagination.  A blue hairy thing that is slightly blurry as it walks amongst the pine trees.   Is it coming or going?

Photo of a blue furry creature taken in winter with snow covered evergreens in the background. Mounted on a concrete wall outside.

autumn lingers on

Posted: November 4, 2015 in history, nature, public art
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The first three days of November have been wonderful – three beautiful warm sunny days, perfect fall weather.

 below: Taking advantage of the warm afternoon in front of Osgoode Hall.

A woman sits on a bench in front of Osgoode Hall, a stone building. Her back is to the camera. A tree with a few yellow leaves frames the picture.

below: On St. George Street in front of Sir Daniel Wilson residence, University College

college on St. George Street, front of the building with black wrought iron fence in front of it along with a few mature trees with some yellow and rust coloured leaves still on them. The clock tower is visible through the tree branches. There are people on the sidewalk in front of the building.

below: Looking across Kings College Circle towards University College

One small tree in the middle of the grass at Kings College circle in front of University College

below: Maple leaves still on the tree.

maple leaves in autumn colours, rust and orange leaves in the foreground, yellow leaves in the background.

below: Mary Pickford looks over University Avenue.

a bust of Mary Pickford, she is resting her head in one of her hands. In the background is a building along with some bushes and a tree with yellow and orange leaves.

There is an historical plaque beside this statue and it reads: “Born in 1893 in a house which stood near this site, Gladys Marie Smith appeared on stage in Toronto at the age of five. Her theatrical career took her to Broadway in 1907 where she adopted the name Mary Pickford. The actress’s earliest film, “Her First Biscuits”, was released by the Biograph Company in 1909 and she soon established herself as the international cinema’s first great star. Her golden curls and children’s roles endeared her to millions as “America’s Sweetheart”. She was instrumental in founding and directing a major film production company and starred in over fifty feature length films including “Hearts Adrift”, “Pollyanna” and “Coquette”. For the last named film, she received the 1929 Academy Award as the year’s best actress. “

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below: Two women outside Emmanuel College, Queens Park Circle

A blueish bronze statue of two overweight women standing facing each other beside a stone building on the University of Toronto campus. It is autumn and there are leaves on the ground. A group of girls is walking in the background.

below: Northrop Frye sits on a bench on the campus of Victoria College (U of T).

A statue of a man, Northrop Frye, sits on a bench with his legs crossed and an open book on his lap. Another book sits beside him on the bench.

This life sized statue was created by Darren Byers and Fred Harrison and was unveiled in October 2012.

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small purple aster flowers in a garden that is close to being covered with autumn leaves that have fallen off the nearby trees

Many maids, for Space

Posted: November 2, 2015 in galleries, public art
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‘Space’ is a series of commissioned works for Mercer Union Centre for Contemporary Art.  These works appear in the billboard space on the side of their building on St. Clarens Ave (at the corner of Bloor Street West).   At the moment, the 4th in the series, ‘Many Maids Make Much Noise’ by Olivia Plender is on display.

words in dark blue written on a white board that is fastened to a brick wall, behind a rust coloured metal fence

Transcription (wordpress has trouble with the formatting I’m afraid):

“1) Imagine you are chewing a piece of very tough meat. Begin
to chew grossly and use the full movements as if trying to break down a gristly lump.

2) Maintain the chewing action whilst repeating the following sentences:
Mutton makes a meaty meal
Militant miners means more money
Many maids make much noise

3) Now try it in a group and repeat several times a day.
Many maids make much noise
Many maids make much noise
Many maids make much noise
Many maids make much noise
Many maids make much noise
Many maids make much
Many maids make
Many maids
Many
[repeat]”

The words are the instructions for making sounds, especially the sound of the letter m. This seemingly mundane exercise is given political overtones by the choice of the sentences chosen to practice on.

This billboard is scheduled to remain until January 2016

Mercer Union website

walking down McCaul Street

Posted: October 21, 2015 in graffiti and street art, public art
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This post is the result of a search for street art while walking south of OCADU on McCaul Street past Grange Road and Stephanie Street on the way to Queen St West.

below: Part of a painting by Uber5000 on the ramp to Above Ground Art Supplies, OCADU on McCaul at Grange.

part of a mural by Uber5000 with birdie in paiter's beret holding a paint palette and painting a portrait of another bird who is posing on a table beside him.

below: On the SW corner of Grange and McCaul is this woman.  The building is 60 McCaul St., the Brinks Express Company of Canada building.

A picture of a woman in profile, with one knee raised, wearing a yellow and white striped top, picture on a wall. An older woman is walking on the sidewalk, approaching the camera.

below: On the south wall of the Brinks building is a mural.  It was painted in 2014 by Julia Dickens, Tara Dorey, Alexandra Mackenzie, Lido Pimienta, Peter Rahul and Diana Vander Meulen.
UPDATE: As of 4th Nov 2015 the lower right part of this mural has been tagged over unfortunately.

mural on the side of low building, beside w parking lot with one white car parked there.

below:  This building has a City of Toronto Development Proposal sign on it.  This sign says: “40-60 McCaul Street and 10 Stephanie Street.  An application has been filed to amend the Zoning By-law to permit a 14 storey residential building with 184 units and a below grade parking garage as well as a 3 storey building proposed to a private art gallery.  Statutory Public Meeting:  Information will be posted once meeting is scheduled.”

corner of a red brick building with a mural on one side and a standard city of Toronto black and white development proposal sign on the other.

below: The next building south on McCaul Street is 52 McCaul.  Dasic Fernandez and Uber5000 contributed this street art to the northwest corner of the building.   It is across the parking lot from the mural pictured above.

street art piece of a woman's face with eyes closed and a vague shape of a heart behind her, done in purples and yellows, by Dasic Fernandez, on the side of brick building, with a pay machine for a parking lot in front of it. Just above her is an UBER5000 birdie with a ghetto blaster

yellowish brown brick wall with a wheatpaste of a girl with long hair and eyes closed. Above her is a paper lace doillie in a heart shape. Part of a grey metal door is also in the picture

below: On the back of 52 McCaul (west side) is:

street art on the back of brick building. A male face is above an old door and an arm on either side of the door.

close up a street art face on a wall

wheatpaste of a girl holdinging something, with poppies behind her, on a brick wall, with decorative metal grilles on either side of her

below: There is a large mural on the south side of 52 McCaul.  It was painted by Francisco Rodrigues da Silva, a Brazilian street artist who goes by the name Nunca, in 2009 as part of that year’s Manifesto Festival.

large mural on an exterior wall beside a parking lot. A man is swimming away from hands holding booze and dice and towards hands holding flowers. There are a few fish in the water with him. Painted by street artist Nunca on a bulding on McCaul Street in Toronto

close up of bottom left of a mural showing 7 hands of different shades of brown and beige. One is holding a pair of dice (two sixes), one is holding a green bottle, presumably with alcohol in it, the other fingers are pointing to the right, towards the main part of the mural.

street art mural, close up of part of it, showing a man swimming in wavy water, he has short black hair, a shiny round ear ring, and his tongue is sticking out. his arms are at his side.

two big round grey fish with open mouths and big yellow eyes, part of a larger mural

part of a mural by Nunca, four hands of differing shades of brown and beige are pointing or holding a large orange flower

below:  A few little things spotted along the way.

on a rusty metal pole beside a brick wall, close up of a flower in a flower pot line drawing in white on brown paper with the word moter in white above it with an arrow pointing to the flower

street signs covered with stickers and slaps in front of OCAD University

More info on the two large murals pictured above.

our faces are all over the place

Posted: October 12, 2015 in events, public art
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Inside Out, a global art project
with more than 250,000 portraits in 124 countries

This project came Toronto as an extended Nuit Blanche installation.

Two men are holding up a large black and white photo of the head and shoulders of one of the men that has just been printed

Starting a few days before Nuit Blanche the Inside Out mobile Photobooth was parked at Nathan Phillips Square.  Anyone who was interested could have their picture taken – a digital copy was emailed to each participant and a large black and white copy was printed within minutes.  The photos were collected and then used to make one large image, a series of concentric circles in the center of the square.

A picture of the mobile photoprinting booth that was used for the Inside Out global art project at Nathan Phillips Square. Some people are waiting in line to have their picture taken.

Two people are holding up a black and white photo of a girl's face. She has her fingers up to her eyes in an owl face. The man holding the photo is making the same face.
below:  Getting ready for Nuit Blanche at Nathan Phillips Square

A group of young people are using brooms and sqeegees to glue blackand white photos of peoples faces onto the concrete of Nathan Phillips Square

A group of young people are using brooms and sqeegees to glue blackand white photos of peoples faces onto the concrete of Nathan Phillips Square

Concentric circles of black and white photos are being glued to the concrete at Nathan Phillips Square, overview, photo taken from the upper level.

below: Nathan Phillips Square at Nuit Blanche

a group of people is gluing pictures to the concrete while many people look on, most are behind barricades, night time

view of the Inside Out Project at Nathan Phillips Square on Nuit Blanche 2015

below: The side of the ramp to the upper level was also covered with photos.

A group of people pose beside a wall that is covered with pictures, nuit blanche, night time.

black and white photos of peoples faces glued to a wall, part of Inside Out Project in Toronto

below: … as was the south side of the 3D Toronto sign.

3D Toronto sign covered with black and white pictures of people, at night, at Nuit Blanche when there were a lot of people standing around it.

below:  The Inside Out Project remained after Nuit Blanche.

Two photos that are glued on the O of the 3D Toronto sign. One is of a man in Blue Jays T shirt and one is of a ayoung man with his hands on his cheeks and a wide eyed, open mouthed look of astonishment on his face. Toronto city hall is in the background

Three people sit on the bench beside the fountain at Nathan Phillips Square. Their backs are to the camera, they are looking towards the 3D Toronto sign that is covered with black and white photos for Inside Out project. Toronto city hall is in the background

A seagull stands on photos of people that are glued to the concrete

Nathan Phillips Square after Nuit Blanche when Inside Out projects are still on the ground, and a farmers market is going on around it.

below: There were a number of other sites around the city that participated in this project including  a wall at Mel Lastman Square in North York.

A wall alongside a sidewalk ramp is covered with black and white photos of people's faces.

below: There was also a wall on the southwest side of Coxwell subway station that was covered.

exterior concrete wall covered with black and white photos of people

exterior concrete wall covered with black and white photos of people

#IOPToronto | #snb2015 | #snbTO | #share3DTO

Lots more info about Inside Out can be found here.

cover_inside_out

An Te Liu

Posted: October 11, 2015 in events, public art
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‘Solid State’ an exhibit of sculptures made from found material that are then cast in bronze, by An Te Liu at the Toronto Sculpture Garden on King Street East.  This is one of the Nuit Blanche installations that is still on view.  It is co-produced by MOCCA (Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art) and the City of Toronto.

 

below: Three sculptures.  From left to right are: 1. Meta-matic, 2. Tourist, and 3. Ascension

Three sculptures by An Te Liu in a sculpture garden, on pedestals in front of an ivy covered wall.

below: Vegetable, Mineral

A metal sculpture by An Te Liu on a grey stone pedestal with another grey stone behind it

below: Remains of the Day

A metal sculpture by An Te Liu lying on a flat grey stone.

silent knight

Posted: October 9, 2015 in events, galleries, public art
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Silent Knight by Ekow Nimako,
a sculpture of a barn owl using more than 50,000 pieces of LEGO,
on display in front of the Gardiner Museum as an extended Nuit Blanche exhibit

sculpture of a barn owl taking flight made of white lego, on a black pedestal (also made of lego) in front of the gardiner museum

close up of the wings and the lego blocks used to make the sculpture of a barn owl

close up of a foot and talons of the barn owl sculpture that is made of lego

#snbTO

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