Read Marcus Gee's column on new public art in North Toronto.
1. Monument to Multiculturalism
Artist: Francesco Perilli
This Francesco Perilli work in front of Union Station, the city’s main transportation hub, was a sesquicentennial gift from the Italian-Canadian community. It was unveiled in 1985.
Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
2. Rising
Artist: Zhang Huan
Zhang Huan’s sculpture in polished stainless steel was unveiled in 2012 at the Shangri-La hotel. The artist said that “The doves in the tree symbolize the peace of the world, and my wish is for beautiful city life to be shared by mankind and nature."
Deborah Baic/The Globe and Mail
3. The Water Guardians
Artist: Jennifer Marman and Daniel Borins
This new work by Jennifer Marman and Daniel Borins in the West Don Lands district has a rubber surface at its base to invite children to play.
Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
4. Monument to the War of 1812
Artist: Douglas Coupland
In Douglas Coupland’s playful work at Bathurst Street And Lake Shore Boulevard, the standing soldier wears the uniform of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment and the lying soldier the uniform of the 16th United States Infantry Regiment.
Deborah Baic/The Globe and Mail
5. The Pasture
Artist: Joseph Fafard
Seven bronze cows by Saskatchewan-born Joseph Fafard lounge in the shadow of the TD Centre. When they were unveiled in 1985, Globe and Mail critic John Bentley Mays said they set off the severe lines of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's dark towers and recalled “the pastoral history of the site with a playful vengeance.”
Peter Tym
6. The Audience
Artist: Michael Snow
Two sets of exuberant figures – pointing, jeering, eating a hot dog, snapping a picture – loom over fans who arrive at the Rogers Centre. Michael Snow, known for his Walking Woman series and the flying geese in the Eaton Centre, said that the figures are appraising the people below “just as they will appraise the players themselves.”
Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
7. Nyctophilia
Artist: Daniel Young
Downtown gets most big public art projects. This one went up in Mount Dennis, a district in northwest Toronto that has suffered from unemployment and crime. Nyctophilia, or love of the night, features 36 coloured street lights on 10 poles.
Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
8: We are all Animals
Artist: Elle Flanders and Tamira Sawatzky
Stone coyotes stand in a square in front of a High Park condo in this work by Elle Flanders and Tamira Sawatzky of Public Studio. The animals face an LED screen that shows a changing landscape made with digital gaming software.
Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail