OCADU | as I walk Toronto

Posts Tagged ‘OCADU’

generally Dundas, from McCaul to Augusta

Posted: March 26, 2022 in alleys, graffiti and street art, intersections, locations
Tags: AGO, alleys, anti war, Art Gallery of Ontario, Bellevue Park, Chinatown, Chinatown the Best, construction, Dundas West, graffiti, Jeremy Lynch, Jimmys Coffee, jumblefacefoto, Kensington, Krispy Kreme, lanes, Long Time No See, McCaul Street, OCADU, Our Lady Mount Carmel Church, pasteups, photography, portraits, Putin, Rosalie Sharp Pavilion, slaps, St. Patricks Church, stencils, stickers, T-bonez, urban ninja squadron, visual noise

Toronto is a city of surprises; a city of variety. If you are bored with one street, just walk another block or turn at the next intersection and chances are you’ll encounter something different. The scenery will change. For instance, on Dundas West you leave the downtown core just after University Ave., walk past OCADU, the Art Gallery of Ontario and Grange Park… next, through a section of Chinatown at Spadina and then immediately into the Kensington Market area. Just south of Kensington is the redevelopment of Alexandra Park…. and you’ve only walked a few blocks.

below: The newly renovated OCADU annex building on the southeast corner of Dundas and McCaul is now called the Rosalie Sharp Pavilion. The curve of the roof contrasts nicely with the sharp edges of the neighbouring buildings

below: The northeast corner of Dundas and McCaul is yet another hole in the ground. The Art Gallery of Ontario and Rosalie Sharp Pavilion are in the background. I am beginning to feel like a broken record player when I mention yet another condo construction site (tangent – is there a 21st century equivalent to “broken record player”?).

below: The demolition of the buildings on Dundas West opens up new views of St. Patricks RC Church.

below: Around the corner from St. Patricks, is Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church and its bilingual signage and beautiful red door.

below: Krispy Kreme (yes, they still exist!) and Jimmys Coffee on McCaul in almost identical buildings. Like twins but with a dash of their own personality.

below: Thing 1 and Thing 2 running down the alley

below: …but not this alley. That’s a lot of stairs!

below: Each building has it’s own character from years of changes and modifications as people come and go. They may not be good looking but they are often unique – someone’s little piece of the city.

below: Front yard patio

below: Critters in the window

below: An old TTC streetcar loses its load. By the looks of it, this image will disappear once the ivy comes back to life in a few weeks.

below: Put together by the ‘Long Time No See Photo Project’, “Chinatown, the Best” is a collection of portraits that highlights seniors in the Chinatown area along with their thoughts and opinions on what makes Chinatown great.

below: The posters are on display over eight locations on Spadina and Dundas West.

Chinatown poster series on residents, in windows and door on Dundas

Left to right:
1. Come and work out in Chinatown.
2. Chinatown is my looking glass. Newcomers come thru finding support to enter Canada & I go back thru to understand where my ancestors and I come from. Keep Chinatown strong!
3. Chinatown is my ancestral village. In 1892 Great-Grandfather Charlie Yep laid down family roots in Montreal – but the early years of international racism gave way to self-loathing Kungfu? Chinesey food? Aiiyah!! Standing defiant in a martial arts pose is a testimony to overcoming my denial. I am Chinese-Quebecois Canadian. Au bout!
4. For making Chinatown the Best, Lily draws on her spiritual energy medicine knowledge to develop a healing relationship with the living landscape and its inhabitants to foster the restoration of the area’s sluggish energetic anatomy and amplify its vibrational health and wholeness.
5. deu say lin yeung im ah im duck!

below: In another Chinatown window is this display – pictures of food with four old black and white pictures.

below: The picture on the far right depicts Shanghai Bund and river waterfront so it is possible that the other photos are also of Shanghai? Or at least cities in China?

below: Another window with pictures – this time The Kensary, a cannabis store in Kensington.

below: A close up of part of the window showing Casa Loma, Roy Thomson Hall, Hughs Room, the El Mocambo, the Silver Dollar, Massey Hall, and gabled Victorian era houses

below: Hoardings on Spadina where a skeleton reaches out for passers-by.

below: Kensington view of the CN Tower

below: Facilities at Bellevue Park – more than just “all gender”

below: Wanted poster for Putin the war criminal

below: There’s at least one Maple Leafs fan left!

below: Jumblefacefoto collages

below: Alexandra Park redevelopment progresses. Dundas West is the northern edge of the 16 acre site owned by TCHC (Toronto Community Housing Corp). Most of the original units that were built in the 1960s are now gone.

below: Apparently it’s okay to be white. Actually it’s okay to be brown, or black, or any shade in between too.

below: Anarchist piano lessons?

below: “They say death takes you to a better place but I doubt it” Me? I’m in no hurry to find out.

walking to the Bentway

Posted: August 9, 2021 in events, landmarks, locations, public art
Tags: art exhibit, ArtworxTO, Assemble, Bentway, Big Red, CN Tower, Double Dribble, downtown, Esmaa Mahamoud, fort york, Garrison Common, Garrison Crossing, GradEx 106, Graphic Arts, Illustration, Nil:Nil, OCADU, Palace Arms, Playing in Public, railway tracks, Studio F Minus

from King Street West

below: Palace Arms hotel on King Street West at Strachan

below: Southeast corner of Strachan and Wellington

below: She’s looking in the window

below: Harry Rogers worked for the city of Toronto in various capacities between 1921 and 1971. He was Commissioner of City Properties in the 1960s. Has this sign been here since then?

below: Part of Garrison Crossing pedestrian bridge

below: Yellow wild flowers growing in the field between the two sections of Garrison Crossing bridge. Looking east to downtown Toronto.

below: There are more than wild flowers between the bridges!

below: Sun bathing at Garrison Common, just outside Fort York

below: On the fence between Fort York and the Bentway there is a series of images that I happened upon the day I walked this route. This is GradEX 106, the work of graduating students in OCADU’s Graphic Design and Illustration program. My apologies to the few students whose work I inadvertently missed.

below: Michael Hu, Shahrzad Soroosh, Lydia Lam, and Dan Waites

below: Aidan Wilkins, Merryn Connelly-Miller, Vincy Lam, and Rebecca Michie

below: Leann Mei Foon, Tina Shan, Ivan Nikitin, and Emmily Fay Fin

below: Valerie Poon, Radha Joshi Raulgaonkar, Alan Zhang, and Sid Sharp

below: Joy Kim, Victoria Tao, Mia Debbas, and Emily Dakin

below: Lucy Hong, Thamara Perera, Tianshu Kuai, Jenny Lynne Castillo, Reyhaneh Mohammadi, and Caroline Icardo

below: Fence on west side of Fort York

below: More of the OCADU exhibit on the fence between Fort York and the Bentway

below: Caitlin Todd, Alizah Hashemy, Lina Wu, and Lisanne Van Der Oort,

below: Jon Owen, Joanne Lee, Kyle Miron, Vuoni, Selina Serok Park, Sarah McIntosh,

below: Liam Marks, Daniel Mendez, Daniel Melnyk, Haojun Gong, Jingyi Dong, and Mika Parial

Also at the Bentway is an art installation called ‘Playing in Public‘. This is part of ArtworxTO, Toronto’s year of public art 2021-2022. Three of the installations are shown below – they will remain at the Bentway until 26th September 2021.

below: ‘Nil:Nil’ by Studio F Minus

below: ‘Double Dribble’ by Esmaa Mohamoud

below: ‘Big Red’ by Assemble

curvy metal lines in yellow

Posted: August 24, 2020 in public art
Tags: metal, OCADU, outline. horse, parking lot, Parkway, Parkway Mall, sculpture, Suzanne Simoni, ThreeSidesOneGesture, tubes, tubular, Victoria Park Ave., yellow

ThreeSidesOneGesture by Suzanne Simoni is a large tubular yellow metal sculpture in the shape of a horse. Or at least I think that it’s a horse! Or a person sitting with his/her knees up? Of course, one’s interpretation of the work depends on the angle from which it is viewed so it shouldn’t be judged from this photo alone. More pictures can be found on Simoni’s website

In 2019, it was the winning entry in a competition open to OCAD U students and recent graduates sponsored by First Capital Realty (They sponsor competitions at art schools around the country for public art for their shopping centers.).

It now stands tall near the southeast corner of Victoria Park and Ellesmere, beside Parkway Mall.

The sculpture was made by Lafontaine Iron Werks

Glass flowers

Posted: May 12, 2019 in galleries
Tags: 3d printing, CONTACT, Contact photography festival, digital painting, flowers, gallery, OCADU, onsite gallery, photography, Richmond St., sculpture, T.M. Glass, vase

Now showing at the Onsite Gallery, is an exhibit of photography by T.M. Glass called “The Audible Language of Flowers”. Glass’s work is inspired by 17th and 18th century northern European still life flower paintings.

below: On the back wall is “Clematis in a Chinese Teapot”, 2017 (The teapot is from the Gardiner Museum). The photograph on the right (with the red flowers) uses a vase from the Royal Ontario Museum, “Tulips in a Persian Vessel”, 2017.

But they are not just large photographs. They have been enhanced in a process that has become known as digital painting. This technique involves enlarging the image to the pixel level. Attributes such as sharpness, colour and vibrance are then manipulated giving the finished image more of a painted look.

below: Part of “Anemone Canadensis in an Italian Pharmaceutical Vessel”, 2017 (The ‘vase’ is from the Royal Ontario Museum).

below: Close up of some of the flowers in one of the photographs where you can see the “brush strokes”.

below: Glass has also been experimenting with 3D printing. On display are some sandstone and resin sculptures that were created from digital files, including these two.

The exhibit continues until August 18th.
Onsite Gallery is part of OCADU and is at 199 Richmond St. West.
This exhibit is part of the CONTACT Photography Festival.

walking down McCaul Street

Posted: October 21, 2015 in graffiti and street art, public art
Tags: bottles, brinks building, fish, flower, flowers, Grange, lovebot hearts, McCaul St., moter, mural, Nunca, OCADU, slaps, Stephanie St., stickers, street art, swimmer, Toronto, uber5000, wheatpaste, woman

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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

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.