Street art and murals
close to the intersection of Niagara Street and Graffiti Alley.
below: A mural on the side of a house on Niagara Street.
Some of the paint is starting to peel but otherwise it is in good shape.
Signature at the top right seems to be Robert Rian Cruz. Other names are written on the bottom left: doz, nose, cora, anto, wizwon, flur, and markis
below: Make It by Aaron Li-Hill
In Graffiti Alley but visible from Queen St. West at Niagara.
Lineal Order
Part of an art installation by George Boileau, 1990,
on Simcoe St., between King and Wellington.
A bronze statue of a bare footed man wearing an overcoat.
Behind him on the wall is ‘his shadow’.
Not seen in this photo is another figurative sculpture. A small boy stands on the other side of the stairs. He too is bare foot and wearing a coat. He is looking toward the shadow on the wall.
On Queen St. West, just before it meets Roncesvalles Ave., is the Corona Restaurant and Nightclub. Along the wall of this building are a number of pieces of street art. Only a small section is visible from the street.
If you follow the alley that runs behind Queen St., you will find more street art alongside the same building.
The back part is a mural entitled ‘Destination Mammal Cabana’ by Birdo, Spudbomb and SKE1. It was painted in 2012.
On the north wall of the same building…..
If you look closely at the above picture, on the right hand side metal pole supporting the landing, is a sticker. Below, that sticker up close.
Looking west along the alley towards Roncesvalles Ave.
but if you walk slightly west, away from Roncesvalles, you will encounter two more pieces by Birdo. The ‘Dreamer’ is on the same building as the Destination Mammal Cabana that is pictured above.
Chinatown Mural
2011 by Alexa Hatanaka and Aaron Li-Hill
Commissioned by the Chinatown BIA & located in an alley near Dundas & Spadina.
The mural is based on scenes from everyday life in Toronto’s Chinatown.
Irene Ave. is a short street that runs behind the north side of Bloor Street West between Carling and Shaw streets, just east of Ossington Avenue. Irene Avenue Parkette takes up most of the south side of Irene Avenue. There is an alley that runs between the park and the back of the stores on Bloor West.
The Christie Ossington Neighbourhood Centre, through the Graffiti Arts portion of their LOFT program, has sponsored a number of murals in this alley.
This is what it looked like on a cold afternoon last week.
The next picture was taken in June of 2012.
The mural is still there but I couldn’t take a proper photo of it last week as there was a car parked too close.
When I walked around the block to check out the fronts of these buildings, this is what I found
A mural by Elicser and to the right the LOFT Youth Centre for Social Enterprise and Innovation.
In February 2014, plans to build a large Walmart store on the site of Kromer Radio (420 Bathurst St., just south of College) were shelved. Kromer Radio was an electronics store and they occupied the building between 1974 and June 2012.
The alley behind the building has been a graffiti site for a number of years.
There is graffiti on the building
including this anti-Walmart statement.
There is graffiti on the garages on the other side of the alley as well.
Again, there is anti-Walmart graffiti including this one that says “Need no Walmart”.
New faces in the alley, or at least they are new to me. Seen yesterday.
and a froggie face too.
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Both Adelaide St. East and Richmond St. East pass over King Street as they converge into Eastern Avenue. Recently the concrete supports that help hold up these overpasses have been painted in bright, bold pictures. The murals are entitled ‘Frozen Memories’ and they were designed and painted by street artist Shalak Attack with help from Bruno Smoky and Fiya Bruxa.
Each pillar has a large face on the side that faces King Street and a picture that depicts something representative of Corktown on the other sides.
These murals are a part of the StreetARToronto Underpass Program or “StART UP.”
Enoch Turner established Toronto’s first free school in the Corktown area in 1848.
Two of the main industries in Corktown were bricks and beer. One pillar pays homage to the people who worked in these industries, including this bricklayer.
This mural is a another tribute to the early days of Corktown. Sailing ships, maps and compasses are for the immigrants that came here. The first church built in Corktown was Little Trinity in 1843. It’s stained glass window is shown here.
other views
Just a few pictures of some of the street art near Queen St. West and Augusta.
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Between Lawrence and Eglinton, Mt. Pleasant Road passes over Burke Brook and Blythwood Ravine Park.
This is the graffiti that I saw under that bridge.
eyes in shadow
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the numbers of a man
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flora and fauna, lylith lyl
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crooked smile in frame
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Did Kat marry him?
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as I walk Toronto 