Urban visuals throughout Toronto

Do you enjoy seeing graffiti throughout the City of Toronto, or does it not appeal to you at all?

 

There are many artists in the city that paint to enhance the urban landscape. They do so legally and illegally, but more often than not, respect businesses and buildings by asking for permission. Meaning, there has been a mutual agreement made for the artist to create a visual on someone’s property. Usually the visual is tailored in a way that showcases the name of the store or promotes a positive image relating to the neighbourhood. 

    

When I refer to graffiti, I don’t mean the petty tags and harsh words or phrases you might find on the TTC or a park bench. I’m referring to the artwork that’s produced by respected artists throughout Toronto’s graffiti community such as:

·       Orek

·       Bacon

·       Kwest

·       Anser

·       RezOne

                                                                                 

A piece by OREK 

A piece by ANSER 

A piece by BACON

                     

A piece by KWEST

Personally, I would like to see more urban visuals throughout the City of Toronto. I believe it adds character and hides the gloominess of all the concrete that we are surrounded by. 

There are community-sponsored events taking place that hold graffiti in the spotlight. Charity group Unity, who values empowering the youth to use artistic self-expression to make positive life choices leading to more productive citizens holds graffiti-based events. I volunteered at one roughly eight years ago called “Come Unity.” The event mainly involved free art lessons and promoted the values of having a closer-knit community. 

Wall located south of Dundas West Station 

                        

The city of Toronto sponsored the event and graffiti artists throughout the city re-painted Dundas West station and the alley-walls that run towards Keele station, creating a visual masterpiece on the south side you can’t miss when commuting between Keele and Dundas West.

Located south of Bloor in the Keele Station parking lot

                                 

People in Toronto are noticing and documenting their work. Instagram accounts such as @dskmedia and @steveward_ are archiving and producing galleries of images that show what the Toronto graffiti community is up to.

PHASE – located on the future MOCA building

Do you know who Zeds Dead is? Well before they became a well-known Canadian electronic music duo, one of the members was knows as RezOne. A big contributor to the graffiti community and well-respected for his work. How many of you knew that?

RezOne – now a member of Zeds Dead 

Zeds Dead Instagram page sometimes shows their involvement with graffiti:

Here is a post Zeds Dead made showing a piece 

Even though there is a respected group of artists in the graffiti community that have created many legal pieces throughout the city, do you think their work is a good utilization of space? Or do you think the space graffiti and street-art consumes, should be used for different purposes?

Leave a comment on what you think!