Posts Tagged ‘Ola Volo’

looking for art on a Saturday morning

Posted: September 16, 2026 in construction, galleries, graffiti and street art, locations, public art
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A Saturday morning walk through Yorkville.

spherical shaped street lights with a tall condo building behind

below: Southwest corner of Yonge and Yorkville where the original brick buildings lining Yonge Street have been saved (or at least the facades have been).

southwest corner of Yonge and Yorkville, older brick buildings at street level, tall glass and steel condos rising behind them

Once upon a time Yorkville, and its neighbour, Cumberland, were quirky little streets.  Joseph Bloor and William B. Jarvis started development here about 200 years ago as a place to escape the city.  Yorkville as suburbia.  It was able to hold back the developers for a while, but even Yorkville has to succumbed; glass and steel towers have arrived.

sign on condo at 1 Yorkville

below: Looking east on Yorkville, back towards Yonge Street where the Toronto Reference Library is.

looking east on Yorkville Ave towards Yonge Street with the Toronto Reference Library at the end of the street

below: Redevelopment along Yorkville isn’t finished yet…..

looking into a construction site

below: Yorkville Fire Hall, Station 312, is the oldest active fire station in the city.  The original station was built in 1876 back when Yorkville was a village and not part of the City of Toronto.  The building has been rebuilt and updated since then but the five storey clock tower remains as it was originally built.

Yorkville fire hall

below: There is a large reddish fountain beside the Four Seasons Hotel (the building to the left of the fountain

large fountain public art beside hotel

below: Part of Yorkville Avenue was closed to traffic for the third Yorkville Murals event.  YorkvilleMurals was presented by Taglialatella Galleries and INK Entertainment, and held in partnership with the Bloor-Yorkville Business Improvement Area

street signs at the corner of Yorkville and Bellair

open top tourist bus, hop on hop off, in Yorkville with people on the sidewalk beside it

woman holding a small dog and looking at her phone as she walks with a group of people

two woman in Yorkville, both wearing black blouses

man painting a large section of temporary wall in maroon colour in prep for a mural painting

children helping to paint a mural

below: Typing, and creating, poetry

a person with shaved head, and many tattoos on arm, dangling earrings, and a couple of necklaces, at an old fashioned typewriter, typing poetry, outdoors,

below: Sewing on the street, part of an exhibition of design and fashion.

mother and daughter watching a woman at a sewing machine, outdoors, Yorkville

outdoors, sitting at a table a woman with a prada purse is talking to a psychic

below: She is posing in front of a large inflatable heart designed by Michelle Hoogveld

asian woman posing for a picture beside a large multi coloured inflatable heart, public art display

below: “Every day is a new beginning” and a new chance for selfies and Instagram photos.

a young man stands in front of an orange door with writing on it that says every day is a new beginning, posing for a photograph, door is part of interactive art display

below: “The Oxley – Adult daycare done right”

outdoor restaurant patio with sign that says The Oxley adult daycare done right, pigeon in sidewalk, other people walking on sidewalk too, policeman watching

two women, both dressed in pink walking together down the street

below: This Toilet Paper Magazine creation was an interactive art installation.  The exterior of this shipping container structure had a mirror to encourage selfies and other photos.  One could also walk through the center of it.

below: The main attraction was a large mural covering many walls that was painted by Ola Volo. It surrounded the courtyard where other art installations or activities were on display.

below: A bouquet of balloons from Ballooms,

balloon bouquet, large,
man taking picture of woman who is leaning standing beside wall with large mural by Ola Volo

below:  That same courtyard is home to the Taglialatella Gallery where artworks by The Connor Brothers (aka James Golding and Mike Snelle), “The Story You Tell Yourself” were hanging on the walls.  This “I drink to make other people more interesting” is one of them.

below:  On the far right is “Fugetaboutit,”  a marble sculpture of a Star Wars Stormtrooper wearing a suit and tie by Montreal-based street artist Stikki Peaches (it was one of a few of his sculptures there that day).  On the wall behind him is “If you haven’t got anything nice to say come sit next to me” which is another Connor Brothers creation.

below: The other exhibit at the Taglialatella Gallery was Stefan Sagmeister’s  “Before We Forgot Things Were Worse”.

below: “La Misma” 2023, Stefan Sagmeister

painting on a gallery wall, La Misma 2023, by Stefan Sagmeister

below: “Purple, Then Green, Then Red”, 2023, another by Stefan Sagmeister

painting by Stefan Sagmeister, Purple then green then red, diamond shapes on black background, one diamond has old fashioned portrait of a man in it

below: Close up of part of an artwork by Zhuang Hong-Yi at Galerie LeRoyer.  It is make with painted pieces of rice paper

artwork by Zhuang Hong_yi made with pieces of rice paper, painted, in curls, looks 3 D,

below: “A Gentle Gesture – Thread Series 237”, 2026, by Lu Luo at Galerie LeRoyer

artwork by Lu Luo made of threads in mostly reds with some yellow and orange, 180 cm by 160 cm, looks like two cupped hands holding two swirls of threads and colours.

below: Bronze sculpture, “Figure Catching a Fly”, 2019, by David Altmejd on Avenue Road

large Bronze sculpture, Figure Catching a Fly, 2019, by David Altmejd on Avenue Road

below: Glass and sky merge and blend together.

below: ‘North Rustico, Tied to the Tide. ‘ part of the exhibit “What’s Next” by Ailene Vrana MacDougall at the Ruth Upjohn Gallery, Women’s Art Association of Canada

painting by Ailene Vrana Macdougall, title North Rustico, a boat is moored along a pier with small buildings behind it

below: “Edinburgh – Hidden Courtyard” also by Ailene Vrana Macdougall.

painting by Ailene Vrana Macdougall, title is Edinburgh - Hidden Courtyard

below: On Prince Arthur Street, across the street from the gallery mentioned above is this mid-century apartment building. One of the architects was Estonian-born Canadian  Uno Prii (1924-2000).  He designed a number of buildings in the city back in the 1960s.  Out of curiosity I went looking for a list of them but so far the closest that I’ve come is this article in Spacing magazine from 2013 (Mod Toronto)

apartment building designed by architect Uno Prii, mid century, sweeping vertical supports curved at the bottom,

below: “Austerity kills”

graffiti on the back of a construction sign that says austerity kills

below: They almost had it right….

danger due to sign that has the word construction spelled incorrectly

below: Ending this with a little silliness, a TTC temporary stop.  A pit stop for the TTC?

two blue porta potties beside a TTC bus stop sign with a temporary stop sign on it. At entrance to museum subway station

the Yorkville-ification of street art

Posted: September 13, 2019 in graffiti and street art, locations
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Over the span of just a few years I have watched as street art went from questionable legality to mainstream; now it’s jumped to very trendy.  From vilified to Yorkvillified?

man working at a table, with reflections of a mural in the window, looking through the window

below: This large mural was created by Kazakhstan born, Montreal-based, Ola Volo.

mural of a woman with long hair, stylized, in red, yellow and black and white

two murals on two different walls of a building

below: Close up of part of the mural by Whatisadam

close up of a mural, a man and a woman are leaning together for a kiss. Woman has bright red lipstick.

below: Mathieu Bories, also known as Mateo, works on the woman’s blue and yellow head scarf.

a man is on a ladder as he paints a mural of a woman with henna coloured stencils all over her face, and a blue and yellow head scarf,

a man, street artist Mateo, spray paints a mural as he stands on a ladder. He's wearing a respirator, painting with blue paint

shoes on a ladder with the eye of a mural looking at them

below: This OK is coming unstuck, peeling off the wall.  This mural was painted by Ben Johnston whose work often features text that looks 3D

on the side of outdoor steps, a blue mural with the word OK in black and white such that it looks like the letters are curling up at the ends, 3 D effect

below: This staircase, with artwork by Getso, is going to turn into a instagram hotspot.   Her shoes may be famous already!  Actually, I took a quick look through a few possible hastags while writing this post but so far there haven’t been too many images of people posing here.

a young woman sits on the railing of an outdoor staircase that has been painted with street art. A man is taking a pictrure with his phone of her feet against the artwork

below: Across the back wall, above the upper level, is a long mural by Mr. Brainwash that is supposed to look like a wall of graffiti

part of a mural made to look like a wall of graffiti including a mona lisa, a man with a camera in triplicate,

mural made to look like a wall of graffiti including a pink marily munroe, a woman in brown and white dress and bonnet, the word i love you written in red,

below: Up on the scaffolding working on Mickey Mouse and his orange ears, is Xray aka Brian Lanier.

a man in an orange vest is up on scaffolding as he paints a mural, two other men are looking at finished murals

a man sits on scaffolding as he paints a mural, LED spotlights are in the foreground

below: I think that it says love, a mural by Peru143

small mural by street artist peru that says love in very stylized and abstract letters

below: The streaks and splotches of colour are part of the wall that was painted by Risk.  It is also the space surrounding the entrance to the Taglialatella Gallery.  It was this gallery, along with INK Entertainment, that brought together the artists to paint the murals and many of them have pieces for sale in the gallery.   I appreciate that the gallery is supporting street art and that artists can make money from their work but there is a heavy presence of commercialism around this enclave of murals that makes me uncomfortable.

window of gallery with the exterior walls painted in pastel colours

a woman in an art gallery, is standing by two pieces that use neon lights. One is large red heart as part of a painting with an image of Charlie Chaplin meant to look like a wall of graffiti, with a yellow neon light in a heart shape

two pictures on a gallery wall, in red, black and white, on wallpaper that is red and beige intricate floral pattern

mural with a pink marilyn munroe, the words i love you in red, mural, Cumberland private wealth