Results tagged “graffiti”

If you are walking by the northwest corner of Bloor and Spadina, be sure to look down: there is a message amongst the black splotches of chewing gum and the general grime of the city that reads "Cultivate Grace," a message that may at first look as though it were spray-painted onto the concrete but that was actually created by a stencil and a high-pressure water hose and is repeated every twenty feet from Spadina to just past Brunswick Avenue. That's right: the whiteness of the letters is the original colour of the sidewalk under your feet.

No victors were declared last night in the ongoing struggle between the street and the man, between high and popular culture, between the alleyway and the gallery. In a panel discussion on the evolving nature of street art, the only consensus was that more conversations—open-ended, open-minded, open-hearted—are required.

Over the past two years, one hundred (or so) faces have popped up on walls around the city. Most were completed in stages: a quick sketch of a woman done one night in black paint might grow blue eyes, brown hair, and earrings soon after, provided she hadn't already been painted over. The work, especially the female sketches variously dubbed "the painted lady" and "the lady," gained many admirers, including us, but the artist behind them managed to stay anonymous even as the sketches grew in number and reputation.

A staple of Toronto construction hoardings earlier this decade, to be found wherever citizens were admonished to "Post No Bills," the dissident quartet of Cosby, Gates, Clinton, and Murray has returned. Since the end of December, the stencilled interventions have been sprayed across the city anew, lest their more-recently-conceived New York counterpart hog all the glory.

Every Wednesday, Torontoist receives transmissions from the travel log of Gleebax, the alien Urbanaut, as he explores the foreign land of Toronto.

"Think more about working less."

After last weekend's Style In Progress event the alleyways south of Queen Street West, between Spadina Avenue and Portland Street, are sporting a fresh coat of paint, or twenty. Every year the graffiti along the lanes is whitewashed and renewed during this event, and now is the best time to take a walk and appreciate this outdoor gallery before the taggers come along and scrawl over it all.

Photo by Dimsumdarren from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

       

One of the greatest and most frustrating things about street art is that its lifespan is inherently finite. Especially in high-traffic areas, no piece is permanent, static, or safe. Take the wall on Queen Street West just out from below the railway and just west of Gladstone. Kevin Steele, who has spent much time documenting Queen Street West (his beautiful stitched-together photos of the block of buildings that burned down earlier this year remain the best portrait of the stretch) has paid close attention to that one span of concrete, taking photos of it regularly over the past year. His photos show how one wall constantly changes—continually added to by a fleet of artists, painted over entirely to erase all trace of them, then added to again.

corporate

Street artist and former Torontoist contributor Fauxreel (which, contrary to what The Globe and Mail says, is not his real name; it's Dan Bergeron) received both a considerable amount of disdain and a considerable amount of cash recently (as well as some praise), when he designed and helped execute a nationwide corporate vandalism campaign on behalf of a well-known motorized vehicle brand. At the time, Torontoist attempted to contact "Mr. Reel" (as the Globe called him on second reference), for his side of the story, but he declined a request for a public interview. Which was too bad, because we really were very interested to hear his rationalization for his involvement.

Every weekday morning, bright and early, we feature a photo (or two) from a photographer in the Torontoist Flickr Pool. It's our way of giving the many excellent photographers in our pool the attention that they deserve.

It seems that some Toronto taggers are no longer content to scrawl their own names on blank concrete canvases around the city and are trying instead to make more of a cultural statement. Last year, references to composer Gustav Mahler popped up in several places around town. This year, a more cryptic stencil has appeared on the Humber Bay Arch Bridge, boldly proclaiming "ISBN 486-28495-6" for all to see and ponder. This International Standard Book Number turns out to be a paperback edition of Henry David Thoreau's Walden; Or, Life in the Woods.

At 6:45 a.m., Cy Goldsbie spotted a guy spraypainting this message on both of Spadina station's Spadina-immediately-north-of-bloor entrances and was kind enough to snap these pics for us.

Every weekday morning, bright and early, we feature a photo (or two) from a photographer in the Torontoist Flickr Pool. It's our way of giving the many excellent photographers in our pool the attention that they deserve.

When first we came across this graffiti on the wall of a U of T bathroom, it was merely a staredown: "Zombie Winston Churchill vs. Robot Hitler." When next we returned, they had obtained allies: "Vampire Stalin" and "Werewolf Mussolini," respectively. The sudden late addition of wild card "Ninja FDR," however, tipped the balance of power, but the "Ref: Mummy Castro" stepped in to keep him in check.

Our favourite Bloor Street comic emporium is having an event tomorrow that sounds totally neat. The Labyrinth proudly hosts its first-ever group show tomorrow evening, an event called Vinyl Graffiti. They accepted submissions of art in any medium for which an old vinyl record sleeve could be used as the canvas. The event starts at 7:00 p.m., but at 8:00 p.m. they will begin a Character Design Face Off competition. Anyone who shows up is allowed to participate. Participants will take part in a series of two-person face offs in which they will have 3 minutes to draw a randomly chosen and probably ridiculous character design with the results being judged by the audience's applause and prizes a-plenty.

Drivers passing through the south end of Leaside on Millwood Road may have noticed commentary added to a Baxter's Soup billboard. An anonymous critic with a penchant for exclamation marks has unleashed their critique of the petit bourgeoisie of the neighbourhood, chastising them for falling for the flattery of an instant meal that appeals to their yuppie pretensions and expensive jeans.

Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains of 2007––the people, places, and things that we've either fallen head over heels in love with or developed uncontrollable rage towards over the past twelve months. Get your dose, starting Boxing Day and running into the new year, three times a day––sunrise, noon, and sunset.

"Read a Book"

For reasons that were surely thoroughly considered, York Mills was not a stop on the recent Type & Tile Tour of the Yonge-University-Spadina line. Nevertheless, due largely to escalator maintenance that has been ongoing for over a year, it is still quite the treasure trove of wacky signage. Here are some recent highlights:

Torontoist has already done a pretty good job of letting you know how rad Posterchild is. In fact, the extent to which Torontoist writes about Posterchild could be seen as the textual equivalent of a marriage proposal. So without rehashing what has already been said about our favourite local street artist/public space crusader, just know that his radness is still on the upswing with new and improved versions of what he’s known best for:...

Photo of the Montreal edition of Mille Femmes from Galerie [sas]'s Picasa album. Consider the first editions of Toronto's two major multidisciplinary arts festivals: Nuit Blanche 2006 was a stunning success, a magical playground that revived the spirit of the blackout and provided a moving conclusion to Let's All Hate Toronto; Luminato 2007 was a mixed bag of highfalutin performances not attended by anyone you know (with the exception of the George F. Walker...

TTC EMPLOYEES WANTED PAY: 26.58/hr JOB REQUIREMENTS: • Able to be rude and unhelpful • Must be constantly late • Willing to waste tax payer moneyTTC service, union wages, and graffiti. If this post gets fewer than thirty comments, we'll be very sad. Thanks to Corinne Alstrom for the tip! And thanks to the people who helped decipher the hard-to-read middle bullet point. Photo taken by Jonathan Goldsbie, at the southwest street-level entrance to...

Torontoist spotted this bit of loveliness in St. George Station on Monday. Unlike most fugly marker graffiti, this is an elegant and playful addition to the station’s signage. It looks like the floral flourish on a crown, or possibly a fleur-de-lis. What compelled someone to draw this on the station wall? Is it a political statement, or is it simply meant to elicit a smile? Whatever the intention may have been, this piece of...