This blog post is a quick look some of the “art” that can be seen in Toronto’s Graffiti Alley at the moment. There is lot on display even though I only walked between Spadina and Portland so this post focuses on the murals and larger paintings that I saw. The smaller stickers and paste ups will be in a subsequent post (sooner rather than later I hope!).
below: Blue birds and big ugly black dogs.
below: A portrait of Volodymyr Zelensky in Ukraine’s blue and yellow colours.
below: Daisy, in rabbit ears
below: On one of the corners, there is a long grey mural with bits of red….
below: “A lone samurai known as Ghost stands on watch”. A story and a mural by Dewucme
below: Portraits painted on skateboards – there has been a collection of such portraits hanging here for at least a year. I am not sure if these three are newer, or if I just forgot them last time. (Link to blog post of skateboards from 2025)
below: Portrait by Bunso
below: Other part of the above mural, but painted by a different artist (I think)
below: In memory of Andre Campbell
below: Behind the Queen Street stores
below: Painting on hoardings as downtown redevelopment (and subway construction) slowly encroaches on the Queen and Spadina neighbourhood.
below: “Find peace in your chaos” Plus, it seems to be wearing shirt and tie but it’s also drooling and looking just a little unhinged!
below: Monstrous television screen head with bloody gums and matching tie.
below: “Who you gonna call?” Ghostbusters green slimey thing!
below: He’s got one big eye and a scowl on his face. There’s a burning cigarette in his mouth and the Ace of hearts is tucked into his hat band. Quite the character.
below: Not all cats are cute?
below: A woman with her purple hair tied up with little glowing (but ghostly) lanterns in a mural by MonkYi
below: Climbing green onions (scallions?)? An upside down blue goose? … And in the middle, yellow siu mai (Chinese open-topped steamed dumplings, a dim sum favorite), all images from the imagination of Mixt Paints aka Kelcy Timmins Chan
below: There’s that snowman again, but on a different wall and surrounded by graffiti
below: Ninos Libres, by Kalaruno
below: Another Kalaruno painting
below: At least it’s a step up from tagging…..
below: A green finger on the trigger.
below: Blue. And strange looking. He’s hanging out in the doorway.
Stramurales curated by the Stornara Life association. Since I visited the city in February 2024, many more murals have been painted on Stornara’s walls. Even though this is my eighth blog post showing Stornara murals, there are many that you will have to go to see for yourself! …. or of course you could check out the Stornara Life website.
below: Graffmatt painted this child with a leaf among the bags of trash, all in blues. It’s title in “Desperate World”
below: “No Looking Back” by Zabou. In case you can’t see it, the title of the book is, “Unione Europea, Repubblica Italiana”
below: Liberami da tutto il male (= Deliver me from all evil) by Brazilian artist Alex Senna; his murals are almost always in shades of gray.
below: “Love overcomes death”, by JDL (aka Judith de Leeuw). The same woman in three different, but similar, positions.
below: Only the flower has color.
below: Caratoes painted this portrait, titled “La Ragazza Meccanica”. This translates to The Mechanical Girl. A machine, or robot, with a mask to make her look human.
below: Both of these pieces are by No Chance (or No Chance Crew), Mona Lisa with her Anonymous mask, and the elderly couple in “Eternal Love”
below: Someone has left a drink for Ghost
below: Zip is the artist who created this little piece – a barefoot girl and a teddy bear.
below; A plain brick wall has been transformed – this mural by Vesod looks so real! The 3-D effect is so well done!
below: A field of red poppies and a blue head scarf in another Zabou mural, “Girl Lying Among the Poppies”
below: “Positive Light” by Alaniz – a mural with bats and a white dove that seems to glow.
below: Your dream, dreaming as you drive, by Antonio Giuliani – but the needed context is that this was painted in August 2020 so she is dreaming of freedom after the COVID lockdowns of 2020.
below: A bit creepy, this skeleton is trying to kiss the girl (or it could be the other way around?). It was a collaboration between Diamond and Solo (Flavio) and is titled “Sommernacht” which is German for Summer Night.
below: “It’s Too Late for Revolution” by Lucione Samoa
below: “One of my Friend” (with a pug looking on), by Artez
below: This mural is a collaboration between Zabou and Bifido.
below: Another piece by No Chance; this one is called “Giovanna Darkness”.
below: The first of at least two Dale Grimshaw paintings in Stornara is this one in blue.
below: The second Dale Grimshaw portrait is also a male, but this time it is a Papuasian holy man.
below: “Two Ancient Faces”, one male and one female combined, in a mural by Aero.
below: A little mouse with a magic wand stands beside a bright pink pair of running shoes, or sneakers, with matching pink laces. This was painted by Aurora Agrestini.
below: The monkey, or ape, is a mural by Smok with a great title, “OMG Humans”.
below: “The White Tiger” by Martina Pesce.
below: Pooh Bear but oh! This is not the Winnie the Pooh you thought you knew. This Winnie, painted by Kris Rizek, seems to be getting ready to be up to no good! A gas mask? cans of spray paint? and what’s in that green bottle?
below: Celebrating an event from 16 April 1519.
“Noi Giovanna e Carlo … da parte del magnifico Signore Paolo Antonio Puderico nobile napoletana fedele nostro diletto… nel presente ha, tiene e possiede … il feudo della Stornara inabitato … per se suoi eredi e successori .. per legittima successione in perpetuo con tutti i suoi diretti entrate e ragioni ….confermiamo, accettiamo, omdoghiamo, lodiamo e ratifichiamo… Anno sedicesimo Navarra quinto Aragonese delle due Sicile e Gerusalemme… Dato nella citta di Barcellona il 16 aprile anna dalla nativita di nostro Signore 1519. “ translation: We, Giovanna and Carlo… on behalf of the magnificent Lord Paolo Antonio Puderico, a Neapolitan nobleman, our faithful beloved… currently has, holds and possesses… the uninhabited fiefdom of Stornara… for himself, his heirs and successors… by legitimate succession in perpetuity with all its direct income and rights…we confirm, accept, commend, praise and ratify… Sixteenth year Navarre, fifth Aragonese of the two Sicilies and Jerusalem… Given in the city of Barcelona on the 16th of April after the birth of our Lord 1519
below: Stornara Life. As I walked around the town, a local woman who spoke no English (and I can’t speak much Italian) made sure that I understood that it was the people at Stornara Life who brought the artists and their work to Stornara.
below: The last mural for this post is “The Crowd of Fools” painted by Gods in Love. It covers two sides of a building. I don’t have a photo of the whole mural – instead I will leave you with a few bits and pieces.
below: At the corner of Cooke and Pohukaina Streets where two sides of an older industrial building are covered with murals.
below: It looks a lot like the work of krack1 but I haven’t been able to find any proof online (and I forgot to look for a ‘signature’ for this piece when I was taking photos).
Along the Cooke Street side of the building, there is a row of murals. This is some of them:
below: A blue and white striped tiger by Kim Sielbeck stalks through tall plants.
below: Bright red and pink flowers by tattoo artists Cory Ferguson and Luckyolelo
below: Lauren Hana Chai painted this woman sitting under a lotus flower and wrapped by a white and pale blue tiger.
below: In a mural by Drea, aka Andrea James, blowing air at butterflies – will this tiny change in the butterfliies’ behavior have a ripple effect on other events? – The Butterfly Effect
below: By Jana Lam, and Fam, more flowers – droopy pink ones and bright blue ones splashed across a textured sky.
below: The view back up the street from the south end of the block.
There is a building across the street with some silhouette type images of people.
On Via Regina Margherit in Stornara there is a large mural by Toni Espinar. It’s title is: “La gran mentira” (Triptico de la Consciencia) which translates to “The Big Lie (Triptych of Consciousness). Triptych refers to the fact that the mural is in three sections/scenes, each under its own arch. The arches resemble stonework found in church architecture.
The first frame is dominated by large purple creatures with big white teeth and shiny red eyes. Green biohazard symbols are in their mouths. A gargoyle-like human head with eyes closed is at the top of the arch.
Under the word “Utopia” is a very pregnant man with a tattoo that says “Respect” on his tummy. On his shoulder is another tattoo that combines the symbols for male and female. He is looking skyward, or perhaps heavenward. Is there a comparison to Christ that can be made here? Is there a resemblance to how the face of Jesus is often portrayed?
Tiger mom seems to push little tiger son into the boxing ring. The white words above the gremlins say “La grande bugia” which can also translate to “the big lie”. Across the top of the arch it says “cambiare mondo, non follia ma giustizia”, or “change the world, not madness but justice”
The chest tattoo is a winged red heart with the equation e=mc2, Einstein’s theory of relativity. There is also a series of keyholes on his chest.
On the far right of the mural, a school of green fish swim together.
On the corner of Chapel and Johnston in Fitzroy there was once a tiger mural painted by Lauren YS (seen in December 2018). It was a tiger with sharp teeth and a long red tongue. Its tail curled around two tattooed faceless women dressed in red.
The largest throw-up on this wall in Cuenca Ecuador was easily read as ‘brotha’. The other (or otha) throw-ups are not as legible although one might be ‘llama’. The murals are where calle Jose Alvear meets Av Fray Vincente Solano
Barcelona Spain, April 2018, pasteups, stickers, stencils and other little pieces of graffiti.
below: The green creature (with Ore on its tail) seems to want to eat the heart. The tiger appears on walls in many Spanish cities although sometimes he’s just a black and white head. He’s the creation of Bloo. Last, an orange crab with eye lashes on one eye.
below: Another face, this time a woman looking up. She’s not quite obscured by the paint around her.
below: Pointed
below: “Lo importante esta en tu cabeza” on empty cans. As it turns out, this the name of an album by the group La Gran Orquesta Republicana. Rough translation is: The important is in your head.
below: More cans on walls. This time they say “mensajes de amor en tiemps de guerra, mensajes de paz con la mente guerrera”. [messages of love in times of war, messages of peace with the warrior mind]. This can art is the work of an anonymous couple. Many examples of their work can be seen on instagram with the hashtag #llaunesbcn
below: Funny Bone and a little hairy chested, hat wearing, tattooed fellow with love on his tummy (or lower).
below:Güelcom was an Argentinian movie, a romcom from 2011. Because of my poor Spanish as well as the rip in the paper, I can’t tell what the second word is.
below: A black and white paste up.
below: Mowcka “uniendo tus partes” and others
below: Very, very with symmetry, as a red rose lies on the sidewalk.
below: Smile! Anthropomorphic rabbit photographer in blue
… and red
below: somiatruites, Catalan for daydreamer
below: Utility box. JERC = Joventuts d’Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (Young Republican Left of Catalonia). They support independence for Catalonia which is the part of Spain that includes Barcelona.
below: The Hulk. Even he is locked out.
below: Watering can and plant pot faces.
below: Another collection of small paste ups on a wall. There’s that tiger again. A blue unicorn and a very large insect share the upper left corner. That little black and white figure in the bottom left is a flying peanut, a character by Hadsawit that really gets around.
Little animals, big animals.
Pasted, painted and stenciled graffiti animals.
Real animals and those just imagined.
All on the walls of Paris.
below: A very realistic tiger walks towards you. Painted by mosko.
below: Another mosko creation, a leopard.
below: What cows order when they stop for fast food. Human meat burger with a side of human finger nibblets. I wonder if he’ll order his burger with meadow grass or cheese?
below: A pink fish dreamily swims past.
below: There’s a zebra under the window.
below: A very tall mural of a blue and white long-necked bird. Un héron bleuté, painted by STEW in the Chinatown area of Paris (13th arrd.)
below: A close up view of the bottom of STEW’s heron mural.
below: An elephant head, and mouton white sheep above the cordonnerie
below: A pink and blue teddy with a few bits missing. It seems to be passing something to the window. Amor! A creature stands under the cross.
below: A wide mouthed big teethed snake
below: A pink cat
below: Two birds standing together
below: The next two may not be animals, but they certainly aren’t human either. Two creatures just playing tunes and boarding on by. The first is labelled Les Impressionoures.
Eyes on the Streets 