Monday Mural

 I'm linking up at Monday Mural

May 2026 - Toronto ON

CHINATOWN

I did a post on the murals at Billy Bishop Airport that included this mural by Anson Ng.

I said I would get a photo of this restaurant on Spadina, which I did.

AHA, looking for something else, I found a photo we took of this restaurant in 2014!!

CAMERON HOUSE QUEEN ST. WEST

May 2026 - Toronto ON

A few days previously, we went to find the latest Cameron House mural.

If you look closely at the upper left corner of the painting, you can spot his name, JOHN ABRAMS, written vertically along the edge of the artwork.

Abrams is a Toronto-based painter who has maintained a unique partnership with The Cameron House for decades. Since 1984, he has treated the venue's front facade as a "living mural," continuously repainting it every few years with new stylized, cinematic pop-art concepts,

This specific installation by John Abrams depicts a cinematic, pop-art interpretation of a classic Western film scene, executed in a stylized, high-contrast monochrome palette.

The composition draws directly from mid-century cinema imagery. It places a classic, shadowed cowboy figure in a Stetson hat next to a stylized, dramatic portrait of a woman reminiscent of old Hollywood film noir or classic cinema starlets.

As a fun aside, AI had given me a brief overview of the image. I commented:

 In past iterations on this exact wall, he has explored entirely different art-historical and pop-culture concepts, including bright cubist tributes to Pablo Picasso, re-creations of classic French cinema scenes featuring Brigitte Bardot, and even adaptations resembling classical paintings like Girl with a Pearl Earring.

April 2025 - Toronto ON

However, John Abrams website shows the history.

August 2022 - Toronto ON

Part of my outing a couple of weeks ago was to get a photo of the latest mural at Cameron House.

It is also done by John Abrams. The woman's eyes belong to the previous mural.

Around the corner they were painting over another mural.

2019

I happened to see the new banners hanging on Queen St. on the same day. While doing an other post I discovered that the artist Ham Ont Doodles had done one of this corner. I didn't actually see the banner but did find a copy on their Facebook page.

Previous murals.

August 2022 - Not my photo but I found this on Twitter, @oldTOseries!

This mural, also done by Abrams, covered Cameron House in 1998. It depicts Barbra Streisand and Canadian prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, father of our current previous prime minister.

I also found more images online.