Dizzy

 

Location: Draper Park, Draper Street

Date photo taken: 28 March 2026

If you spend any amount of time walking anywhere in Toronto, you'll know that we're a city that loves our dogs. It's not so easy to tell how we feel about cats. Although I would argue that that's starting to change. More and more often I see people out with their cats on a leash or in giant backpacks equipped with multiple large viewing bubbles. I've also begun to realize that more and more cats - or more specifically, odes to cats - are quietly turning up in public spaces. This sculpture is one such example. It sits just inside tiny, peaceful Draper Park, looking out at the street. The park was created by landscape architects Claude Cormier et Associés (now CCxA) as part of their work for The Well, the giant residential and retail complex that Draper Park connects to on its eastern edge. The cat is said to have been inspired by a local resident, Dizzy, that Cormier saw several times while visiting the site. 

PHLEGM mural

 

Location: West side of 1 St. Clair West

Date photo taken: 2 November 2025

This mural, covering nearly eight storeys of the building at 1 St. Clair West, is approaching its 10 year anniversary. Created by U.K.-based street artist Phlegm the result is not a random work, divorced from its surroundings, but rather incorporates input from local residents and business operators. The human form is meant to be representative of the city as a vibrant ecosystem and is made up, on close inspection, of depictions of various Toronto landmarks, as suggested by the locals canvassed. 

Bellbox - On vacation

 

Location: Wellington Street at Niagara

Date photo taken: 11 November 2021

Image #18 in the Bellbox Series

This mural is for everyone dreaming of a sunny escape from this snowy February weather.  You can thank artist Steven Twigg and Community Matters, the non-profit that runs the Bell Box Murals Program.

The Sound Eater

 

Location: Sculpture Garden, King & Church

Date photo taken: 16 October 2025

Artist Meghan Cheng has used data visualization techniques to create a sculpture that brings the soundscape of the Sculpture Garden to visitors in a whole new way. Each of the four distinct segments of this serpentine creature represents the audio waves of a sound frequently heard within the garden. They are then playfully arranged to create her "sound-consuming serpent". The sounds, all recorded on Sunday July 27, 2025 are:

Section 1 (head): Streetcar, 8:05 am

Section 2: St. James church bells, 7:59 am

Section 3: Melodic bells, 7:58 am

Section 4 (tail): Bird, 7:42 am

Copper Canopy

 

Location: Ontario Square, Harbourfront Centre

Date photo taken: 18 October 2025

If you find yourself on the waterfront between now and November 16, head for the open space north of the Power Plant gallery. There you'll find a canopy of cut copper leaves, twisting and spinning and reacting to wind and light. If you're there during the day, the leaves blaze when the sun hits them, but if you visit after dark, the on-site lighting creates its own atmosphere. Do as you're encouraged to do - enjoy a moment of stillness beneath this ever shifting forest canopy. 

It was designed by RAW Works, with Roland Rom Colthoff, Suleman Khan, Elmira Yousefi, Aaron Hendershott, and fabricated by Anex Works.     

The Day

Location: Kipling bus terminal

Date photo taken: 28 April 2025

The new Kipling bus terminal on the western edge of Toronto is a light, airy building with glass walls and large open stairwells. It also features over 220 square meters (or 2400 square feet) of vitreous tile mosaics designed by the Winnipeg-based artist Simon Hughes. The designs around the building are all different, some more abstract or geometric, but all are tied together by the colour scheme and Hughes' overall concept. The detail above is from one of the most striking murals, which wraps around one of the stairwells and presents an ever-changing view of an almost-but-not-quite-familiar city as you work your way down the stairs and around the landings. I was attracted to the DONUTS which is why I took a picture of this particular section, and was tickled to later read in an interview with Hughes that it's one of many Easter eggs that he included in the cityscape. 

Artaic, the company who made the tiles, has a wonderful description of Hughes' concept on their website: The Day was inspired by Hughes’ imaginative vision of the city. Referencing a wide variety of symbols, architectural styles, and landscapes, the installation blends fantasy and reality. Using icy blue colorways reminiscent of Toronto’s cool temperatures, Hughes collaborated with Artaic to create an inverted color gradient. The mosaic artwork features dark tones at the top of the shapes that dissolve into a white background, creating the appearance of a city emerging from morning fog, haze, or a snow squall."

Asteroid

Location: North east corner of Bloor and Islington

Date photo taken: 16 July 2025

According to the affixed plaque, this 2020 piece, titled Asteroid, is by Jean-Pierre Morin and was commissioned by Bloor Islington Place. Morin is a Quebec artist known for his large public art pieces and while you are more likely to see his art in his home province, at least three of his pieces can now be found across the city. While the form of each is unique, there is similarity in his choice of bright aluminum for the sculptural form and corten steel for the plinth.

Traffic Signal Box - Toronto Map Maze

 

Location: Eastern Avenue at Carlaw

Date photo taken: 9 January 2021

Image #21 in the Traffic Signal Box Series

If you find yourself near the corner of Eastern Avenue and Carlaw with some time on your hands, pop over to the north east corner and find this traffic signal box. On it artist Pam Lostracco has created a maze using Toronto's streets and rivers. The CN Tower is marked as the start and there are other destinations, many of them greenspaces, to discover as you work your way through the maze and around the box. A fun and different way to discover the city.

Vimāna (N1 Starfighter)

Location: Sculpture Garden, King & Church

Date photo taken: 29 October 2024

When the months are dark I have a special fondness for installations that brighten the night. I also love space epics and science fiction so this sculpture, installed in the Toronto Sculpture Garden as part of the Toronto Biennial of Art last fall, brings me joy. Rajni Perera creates a futuristic-looking spacecraft from modern materials such as acrylic and LED lights while evoking the look of a traditional paper lantern. 

From the descriptive panel: The work explores themes of spacefaring and immigration, incorporating the Sanskrit term vimāna (which has various meanings related to flying) to challenge Western narratives of advanced aerospace technology.

Celebration of the arts

 

Location: East wall of 290 Adelaide Street West

Date photo taken: 5 February 2022

On a big blank wall next to a parking lot at John and Adelaide is this gorgeous tribute to arts and culture. It's by Alexander Bacon, a Canadian graffiti artist, and was created as a Partnership Project through StART in 2019. If you're curious, the portraits he has incorporated are of real people, whom he credits in his Instagram feed as @que_rock_, @anniecwh and @allblckerthing.

People Walking 2006

Location: 333 Bloor Street East

Date photo taken: 10 July 2019

Mirroring the hustle and bustle of a weekday late afternoon, figures of light traverse this large black screen positioned just steps away from the sidewalk on Bloor Street East. There are nine figures in total although I only know this from reading about the piece - their appearances are randomized so while watching from the sidewalk, the impression is of a much greater multitude. Commissioned by Rogers, and billed as Toronto's first LED-based piece of public art, it was created by British artist Julian Opie. On his website, I found it interesting to see what other cities feature "walking" pieces like ours. Spoiler alert - they include Shanghai and Taipei.

 

Pi

 

Location: Wellington Street, just west of Bay

Date photo taken: 12 August 2020

Tucked away in one of the Financial District's many weird pedestrian access lanes sits this unusual multi-part bronze sculpture by Toronto-based sculptor Evan Penny. It was commissioned in the 1990s while Penny was teaching at the Toronto School of Art and it is actually meant to function as seating. I couldn't find any information about the specific subject of the piece but I can't help seeing a resemblance to Sir Wilfred Laurier.  

Slurry management

 

Location: Laneway north of Queen, between Munro and Hamilton

Date photo taken: 15 March 2023

I've said it before but I love it when murals thoughtfully work existing infrastructure into their narrative. In this case Emily May Rose has her raccoons monitoring the flow of what I can only assume is some form of deliciousness while also keeping an eye on the posted notices. The work was created in 2021 as part of Women Paint Riverside, a partnership between East End Arts, Women Paint, Native Women in the Arts and the Riverside BIA.

Garden of Future Follies

 

Location: Front Street at Bayview

Date photo taken: 1 June 2019

This installation created by Canadian art duo Hadley+Maxwell playfully attacks our city's historic monuments, bringing them to the people and into the present. Their folly is comprised of over 150 unique elements copied from 80 different monumental works around the city. The original pieces are often oversized, elevated and designed to inspire awe. By taking fragments, juxtaposing them in whimsical ways and placing them at our level, the artists invite us to get personal with the pieces, and to re-examine their stories. It also makes me wonder if any monument buffs out there have successfully mapped back the various pieces. This excellent 2016 article from Spacing Magazine gives a few of them away.

Metropolis

 

Location: City Hall

Date photo taken: 1 April 2015

Just inside the main doors of Toronto City Hall, on the east wall, is this large scale work by David Partridge. It's really worth a visit. This image shows the central portion, and it really doesn't do the piece justice. 

The winner of an art competition held in 1974, this "nailie", as it is sometimes called, is the artist's interpretation of a great city, or metropolis, with its central core, its ravines, and its suburbs. It's called a nailie because it's constructed of over 100,000 individual nails, made of different materials and hammered to differing depths. The effect elicits comparisons to both the topography of a city, and to the individuals that inhabit it. As an added bonus, the durable materials allow for perhaps greater interaction than a piece of public art would normally afford. William Denton, as part of "Listening to Art", even drops a coin down through the nails and records the sound as it pings its way to the bottom (jump to about 10:50 to catch the sound).

Brick Obelisk

 

Location: NW corner of Dundas & Carlaw

Date photo taken: 9 January 2021

While the artist may have chosen to name this piece Brick Obelisk, it is in fact made of Corten steel which has been cut with an intricate pattern. Lit from within by LEDs, the lines are even more pronounced at night. For those who take a closer look, and are perhaps familiar with the area's geography, some elements may begin to look familiar. Pierre Poussin, whose artist statement notes that he thinks art should be "tailor-made for the space it inhabits," overlaid maps of the area from various eras to create the pattern, and the shape was inspired by the smokestacks that once dotted this formerly industrial area. Together, they form a fitting ode to the neighbourhood's past and a beautiful addition to the intersection.

Traffic Signal Box - Birds

 

Location: Moore Avenue at Mount Pleasant

Date photo taken: 21 June 2023

Image #19 in the Traffic Signal Box Series

Here's another signal box brought to life by the City's Outside the Box program. It was painted in 2022 by Erin McCluskey, her third signal box for the program, although her work can also be found on Bell boxes, construction hoardings and other projects around the city.  

Ship in a bottle

 

Location: Marie Curtis Park

Date photo taken: 5 September 2021

There's a small building tucked away in a corner of Marie Curtis Park, near the Lake Promenade entrance. Once upon a time it probably blended into the scenery, but now its hard to miss thanks to four large, vibrant murals created by local graffiti artist Luvsumone in 2016. All four images draw inspiration from the lakeside location and I just love the twist put on this one. For me, the dark silhouette of the ship is almost ominous, but then the colours pull me back to happy.

Lapin

     

Location: Stackt Market, Bathurst Street

Date photo taken: 14 September 2019

It doesn't deliver chocolate eggs, but I thought this fellow was a pretty good stand in for the Easter Bunny. It's by Quebec artist Laurence Vallières who normally creates her largely animal-inspired sculptures out of cardboard. This particular one however was created with wood and the white corrugated plastic known as coroplaste, allowing it to stand up to both the elements and to its admirers. She originally created the work for the 2019 edition of Montreal's MURAL Festival, where it sat on the street, a glowingly bright white. The pink paint job was done when it was relocated to its new home in Toronto later that summer.

Heavenly Waters

Location: Queens Quay, west of Jarvis

Date photo taken: 30 August 2020

Starting in 1981 Robert Wyland began painting large scale murals, dubbed Whaling Walls, around the world. This is one of two that he created in Toronto, although the second one, at the ROM, is now listed as extinct. This one can be found on the north wall of the sugar shed at the Redpath Sugar plant on Toronto's shoreline. It was created in 1997 and it's a bit special in that it was co-signed by Robert Hunter, the Canadian environmentalist who co-founded Greenpeace and spent years campaigning against commercial whaling.