Graffiti pieces on the southeast corner of Bloor and Ossington, on the back of the LCBO. The LCBO attests that the piece was not commissioned by the store, although the artist may have applied for an independent permit from the city. The premise of graffiti art is that it’s not supposed to be there. Its [...]

Photo by dan cronin.jpg from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. It’s a strange time for Toronto graffiti. On the one hand we’ve got as many cop crackdowns on street art as ever; on the other, we’re still moved to collectively soil ourselves with giddiness when the most famous graffiti artist of them all visits our town. [...]

It's not that Toronto doesn't have any number of great street artists; it does, and this year was an especially big one for them. There was a massive and unprecedented street advertising takeover that saw the ads inside dozens of Pattison ad pillars swapped out for art. The Urban Repair Squad stayed busy with interventions on cyclists' behalf, from onomatopoeias painted alongside bumps in the road to bike symbols and sharrows where there weren't any. Others played with geese and yarn and mattresses and Stephen Harper. Some just really hated Roncesvalles construction.

Fifty million friends, and a room full of local critics, can’t be wrong. The Social Network and star Jesse Eisenberg snag top honours at Toronto Film Critics Association awards. Still courtesy of Sony Pictures. This morning at 12:01 a.m., the Toronto Film Critics Association released the results of their 2010 awards (disclosure: author is a [...]

Urban Planner is Torontoist’s guide to what’s on in Toronto, published every weekday morning, and in a weekend edition Friday afternoons. If you have an event you’d like considered, email all of its details—as well as images, if you’ve got any—to events@torontoist.com. The Roots take to the stage at Nathan Phillips Square as part of [...]

I’ve been loving the art of Banksy since around the time he tagged his first, now-iconic rat nine years ago. All online, sadly—in blogs, photo-sharing sites, web zines like the Wooster Collective. I haven't travelled much outside Canada: no money, then children, then no money again.

Urban Planner is Torontoist’s guide to what’s on in Toronto, published every weekday morning, and in a weekend edition Friday afternoons. If you have an event you’d like considered, email all of its details—as well as images, if you’ve got any—to events@torontoist.com. Photo from 2008′s pillow fight at Nathan Philips Square by Miles Storey/Torontoist. YARD [...]

The state of Banksy’s piece at 10 a.m. today. Photo by Christopher Drost/Torontoist. That might be a dodo on the head of Banksy’s sub-Gardiner security guard, but it’s harder to say whether last night’s addition to the work—a stenciled bird, “Robbin’ Banksy” painted on the wall to the right, and “Grrr!” tossed beside the muzzled [...]

Photo by Nick Kozak/Torontoist. When we revealed that there were seven Banksy pieces in Toronto, one thing we didn’t reveal were those pieces’ locations. We were initially sworn to secrecy—or at least vagueness—from one of our sources; there were concerns that disclosing the precise locations could lead to pieces being stolen or damaged. Now, a [...]