The Bentway and Exhibition Place is unveiling Petal and Stone, a brand new public mural by Canadian artist Rebecca Munce, which can remodel a ten,000 sq. ft. concrete wall positioned under the Gardiner Expressway. The mural will likely be out there to view from October 24, 2025, coinciding with Artwork Toronto.
The mural represents the primary fee in a rotating collection of works that will likely be displayed in The Bentway dubbed the Gardiner Wallworks collection.
The Bentway is that area that opens up beneath the Gardiner Expressway because it winds into the town. It’s a public area that connects many alternative areas from the GO and VIA practice tracks to Fort York, Exhibition Place, and the neighbourhoods round it. It’s grow to be a social hub, a spot for occasions, and exhibitions like Petal and Stone. You possibly can take a look at the 2024/25 annual report right here for extra details about programming.
With Petal and Stone, the concrete wall turns into a transition between The Bentway space and the historic gates of Exhibition Place. The mural contains architectural in addition to pure flora motifs.
It’ll be seen from the Strachan Avenue bridge, dealing with north, and the encircling space, for a two-year interval from October 24, 2025 by way of 2027.
We talked to artist Rebecca Munce concerning the venture.
Rebecca Munce, artist
A local of Toronto, artist Rebecca Munce makes her residence in Montréal lately. She studied visible arts at York College, the place she earned a BFA in Portray and Drawing, and subsequently at Concordia College, the place she earned an MFA.
Rebecca has held residencies in Québec, Toronto, and in Italy, and was the recipient of the 2015 Tom Hopkins Memorial Award, 2016 Dora and Avi Morrow Fellowship, and 2017 Lillian Vineberg Graduate Scholarship.
Her work has been exhibited in a wide range of solo and group exhibitions in Montréal, Toronto, and New York Metropolis since 2015. Her work has additionally been proven at numerous worldwide artwork exhibitions and reveals. She is represented by the McBride Contemporain gallery in Montréal.
Rebecca Munce: The Interview
“I used to be contacted by The Bentway,” Munce remembers.
The Bentway, maybe impressed along with her work at Artwork Toronto or one other exhibition the earlier yr, invited her to use for the inaugural Gardiner Wallworks commision.
She had not taken on a venture of the size required earlier than; 10,000 sq. ft is numerous portray. “It’s not one thing that was on my radar.”
Simply north of Exhibition Place, the concrete wall stretches horizontally, with the mural dealing with north.
“You possibly can see it from the Strachan bridge,” she says. The wall, as she explains, was already standing in the suitable location, within the area the place the Bentway opens to Exhibition Place gates. The placement steered the strategy.
“I wished it to be this assembly level between softness and construction,” Munce says. It’s concerning the potential for change and progress. “The mural is hopefully in a position to embody each of these issues.”
Photographs and Motifs
Rebecca’s work usually examines different worlds and religious universes.
“I do it by way of a lens of mythology,” Rebecca explains.
She says she usually makes use of structure for inspiration, and architectural components as motifs, together with the concept of portals or transition factors between one world and one other. The scope of the venture match along with her ideas.
“It was actually nice to work on this.”
The collaborative nature of placing collectively the large-scale venture is one other bonus of the general public venture.
“I’m used to working alone on these panels,” she says. Her works are sometimes conceived at that scale; small and intimate, and designed in a approach that individuals can rise up near it to view.
Placing her concepts on 10,000 sq. ft of concrete that many individuals would see from a distance was a special kind of proposal. How might she get her drawing throughout on the media and scale? Learn how to present brush strokes and different textural element?
“It was a very, actually fascinating expertise,” Munce relates.
Public artwork tasks by their nature require a special strategy. “It’s time to do totally different concepts. The area dictates the work.” That is available in distinction along with her ordinary practises.
She developed a symbology associated to native vegetation and animals, tapestry and architectural components, and the concept of transition. “It’s kind of a veil.” The mural beckons viewers to stroll by way of the area. “In all this, it’s an invite to discover.”
Whereas it’s seen from above to commuters, the attitude relies on the view from the pedestrian paths within the space.
“It’s a journey of exploration, and discovering new issues. That’s very a lot what it’s like navigating by way of the town and its neighbourhoods.”
Yow will discover out extra particulars concerning the venture right here.
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Anya Wassenberg is the Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. Beforehand, she was a contract author with a specialty in tradition and journey for 3 many years, and a artistic writing teacher for Ontariolearn.