Posts Tagged ‘portrait’

abandoned site, Baldwin & Spadina

Posted: January 18, 2025 in graffiti and street art
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There once was a building on the southwest corner of Spadina Ave and Baldwin.  That building is long gone but the hoardings around the vacant lot have become a home for graffiti.  Although advertising posters sometimes take over some of the space, there is often new graffiti too.

This is what was there in January 2025.

below: The Last Laugh by Nigel Smith.

graffiti on old hoardings at baldwin and spadina, a sign that says the last laugh, words written in red capital letters on black background

below: Paste-ups on plywood.   On the left – a City Kitty character in big pink frame glasses (and what’s that on his head?!).   Small black and white pasteups include Visual Noise with Urban Ninja Squadron.

pasteups on plywood hoardings

below: WOW! He is not dead yet.  Live!  Let Live!

three drawings on a fence, one red, one white, one blue, lines, face, and words, he is not dead yet, ugly, beauty

below: Two pieces by Bao aka (Bao Pham) who seems to like to mix cultural icons that aren’t usually associated with each other.

graffiti by Bao Pham, Trans Quebec, Beatles as storm troopers in a shield shape

below: “Fab Four Troopers” Quebec highway sign

graffiti by Bao Pham, Trans Quebec, Beatles as storm troopers in a shield shape

below: “Return of the Boom Bap Trooper”

graffiti street art by Bao Pham, storm trooper from Star Wars movies holding a ghetto blaster on his shoulder, wearing rapper jewellery

below: A woman’s portrait among the advertisements.

posters on hoardings, some advertising television programs, some HIV education website and in the middle is a graffiti street art picture of a woman with flowers in her hair

below: “Frida Moss”, A Frida Kahlo and Kate Moss mash-up, also by Bao

graffiti picture of a woman (photograph) with flowers in her hair and a cigarette in her hand

below: A green catchoo looking atch youcatchoo green rectangular face paste up

below: Ouch!  Another Urban Ninja Squadron paste-up, this one in collaboration with Dio Tha Dog.

visual noise, and urban ninja squadron black and white paste up on a pole

This post also appears in Eyes on the Streets blog

in the alley after dark

Posted: October 13, 2023 in alleys, graffiti and street art
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A walk down Graffiti Alley on a rainy night.

below: Unfortunately, one of Uber5000’s large Toronto/Canada themed murals has been defaced (the one on the north side of the alley).

Graffiti Alley night time, light from headlights of car, walls covered with street art and graffiti

below: Doug Ford running away with the money, stencil graffiti by D. Terra. Our Premier seems rather happy with his haul. Accurate?

black and white stencil art by d terra, of doug ford in a ablack suit, white shirt, black tie, holding bags of money and smiling

below: A dope piece that bears some resemblance to Homer Simpson.

graffiti alley, homer simpson with word dope

below: A  yellow one-eyed daisy standing tall.

yellow one eyed daisy on green stem

below: This portrait has hair!

black and white portrait of a young man with glasses and headphones,

night time, graffiti alley, street art and graffiti on walls

below: For some reason, a section of one of the side lanes (McDougall Lane? or Rush Lane?) was lit by a red light.   Here there was a collection of pasteups and stickers including one with an abundance of flowers in her hair, a skater figure by drecks. She is joined by a bare breasted woman with even more flowers on her head as well as a Snoopy look alike and a cat on the telly.

slaps on a wall, graffiti alley, night time, red light

below: On the same wall as the above – Tweetie bird, from Australia, along with some friends.  Because of the red light, this photo is very low contrast and difficult to see.  Best to see this wall in the daytime!  Second best, would be to check out the instagram page of tweet_streetart

pasteups in an alley, red light, nighttime

with red lights, at night, slaps, paste ups and other graffiti

below: Another selection of slaps, mostly birds this time.

slaps on a wall, mostly birds, plus a fish

slaps on a wall, mostly birds

below: A little raccoon

raccoon graffiti in black and white, also a bird and a fish sticker

below: Mortus figure – his hands are almost big enough to hold all those skulls.

blob like figure with bald head and big hands, holding a lot of skulls, mural in graffiti alley by mortus

below: On the pavement

text graffiti on the pavement that says get off the internet

below: FP Monkey (aka Julia H), Skamoney, Monster Fan Club, and PP Spray

mural in graffiti alley, collaboration of three artists, FP monkey, aka Julia H.

below: Poser bunny

poser bunny on a column, door beside is covered with scrawls

below:  Making a rap music video

people making a hip hop or rap music video in graffiti alley

graffiti on a wall in graffiti alley

below: The east end of Graffiti Alley, the part closest to Spadina, was very dark.

view down graffiti alley at night, rainy, wet pavement, reflecting light

below: As it turns out, the buildings at this end (north side) are now behind a metal construction fence. Darkness equals empty I suspect.

back of buildings on Queen West, now dark, with construction fence, view from graffiti alley, large orek tag on building, dark, no lights,

below: Yes they matter but was there no where else to paint this?  There’s so much junk in the alley that no one would miss.

graffiti alley uber 5000 mural with a painting with the text every child matters covering the bottom part of it

below: I am going to end this post with a bit of a rant.  Yes, to some extent the art in this alley has come somewhat commercialized especially with the newer buildings on Richmond that back onto the alley.  Uber5000 has benefited from some of this as he has painted a few large (and very good) murals here.  I understand that street art by its nature is prone to “disappearing” behind the work of others but I reject the notion that one person’s tag is as good as another person’s mural.  Anyone can destroy.  Anyone can paint their “name” but if you are proud of writing it over someone else’s more talented work then you haven’t progressed beyond the preschooler phase of life.

street art and graffiti on a wall in graffiti alley

This post also appears in eyesonthestreets.blog

three plus one

Posted: November 26, 2017 in alleys, graffiti and street art
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In a little lane that runs south of Graffiti Alley towards Richmond Street, I found four paintings that I don’t think that I have seen before.  The first one is this very realistic eye that looks like it’s keeping close watch on the rat with the red heart.  It was painted by @soortattoo aka Suren Davtyon, a Russian tattoo artist from Moscow.  That is the ‘one’ in the blog title.

street art painting by soortattoo aka Suren Davtyon, a realistic eye looking to the side, to see a rat holding a red heart

The ‘three’ refers to the fact that the next three that were on the same wall are by the same person, @inkcanon, who is also a tattoo artist.  Portraits of three women.   The first one is blowing bubbles, very big bubbles.

street art painting by inkcanon of a woman blowing a large bubble with bubble gum, in shades of pink and blue

street art painting by inkcanon, a k a Nico, of a woman's portrait in profile, blond hair, grey tones in face, blue and pink background

street art painting by inkcanon of a woman with long hair, vines growing up on either side of her.