Monday Mural

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February 2024 - Toronto ON

Pearl St. 

Painted by Jarus.

The only information I could find was this RFP (request for proposal). Obviously Jarus won the assignment.

Monday Mural

  I'm linking up at Monday Mural

March 2022 - Toronto ON

Painted by Young Jarus titled When We Return

It replaces a Cosby Hayes and Sarah Painter mural.

Monday Mural

 Linking up at Monday Mural

September 2020 - Toronto ON

Yorkville began a mural festival last year. Click here.

Artist: Jin Ke Wang

Jin Ke Wang has a strong passion for visual narratives and illustration. This OCAD U graduate used a Bell box located in the park to create a magical world that have a sense of drama and illusion.

Artist: Birdo

Toronto’s largest mural is located on the rooftop of Citipark Cumberland Parkade. Created by the artist “Birdo”, this hidden gem is Yorkville’s best cultural secret. Take the stairs or the elevator all the way up to the rooftop of the parking building and prepared to be amazed!

I found an aerial view online along with an excellent article about Birdo and the execution.

Artist: Kirsten McCrea

Go for a stroll on Old York Ln and enjoy a spectacular mural painted by Kristen McCrea. Located on a wall from the new Oxley Pub patio that faces the lane, Kirsten artist painted an abstract mural that presents a mix of colorful and playful patterns inspired by classic British textiles.

This replaces Mr. Brainwash's mural of last year.

Artist: JARUS

Right in front of the iconic Chanel store there’s a Bell box that the artist “JARUS” used as an urban canvas. His vision constantly reimagines how art can exist in public spaces.

I had posted this a few weeks ago while it was being painted.

Artist: Jacquie Comrie

Forbidden Togetherness is a mural that captures feelings of isolation during the pandemic. The colorful mural is located next to the famous Yorkville rock in the park and has plenty of cool spots around to enjoy a coffee and admire the work.

Aerial view of the park taken while looking at Birdo's mural.

Not quite Yorkville - Yonge and Charles.

This mural is located on the walls of the Anndore House Hotel, located on Charles Street. The illustration has the words “hang in there” in a big graffiti style font, with an illustration of a cat playfully hanging onto a clothesline.

Another stylized hoarding around a construction site on Yonge.

Monday Mural

 Linking up at Monday Mural

September 2020 - Toronto ON

Descriptions from Toronto Life

Emmanuel Jarus, an artist and muralist, has redone this same wall near Graffiti Alley three times over the past six years. He completed his latest reinvention during Covid-19, and realized it perfectly fit StreetARToronto’s front-line heroes program. The original idea came to him while he was contemplating what to paint on the wall and happened to run into an old friend in a nearby parkette. She was taking a break from working at a cannabis store. He thought her mood and stance perfectly reflected the exhaustion and uncertainty of the current moment. “I like to observe things—I call my work ‘painting journalism’—and my murals happen organically,” Jarus says. So, he snapped a bunch of photos of his impromptu model, created an image on his iPad and selected his colour palette from whatever was available at the discount warehouse down the road. The result is a striking image which Jarus hopes passersby find relatable and honest.

Alexander Bacon is an internationally recognized artist who’s been painting since he was a teenager in the 1990s. His vibrant, large-scale pieces, featuring portraits and historical references, can be spotted all over Toronto, including Kensington Market and the Entertainment District. This massive mural near Adelaide and Portland features a hand clad in a blue medical glove holding a wilting flower. The idea came to him when he was submitting ideas for a virtual art festival in Puerto Rico. The flower is meant to represent the fragility of life, and the gloved hand represents the strength of our front-line workers. The scene is also supposed to show the sacrifices everyone is making for the most vulnerable in our society. “We basically shut the world down for people who aren’t strong enough to fight this virus,” says Alex. “I think it’s beautiful humanity is willing to do that.” The piece took Alex three days to paint, and he finds people still interpret it in different ways. Some simply find it aesthetically pleasing, but when he showed it to his uncle, who is a local doctor, he immediately recognized it as a tribute to their work—and brought all his colleagues down for a group viewing.

This was hard to photograph as it is in Graffiti Alley behind a locked fence.

Quentin Commanda (a.k.a. Que Rock) took over a wall that faces east onto Graffiti Alley and wanted to create something to honour front-line workers from his perspective as an Indigenous artist. He’s Nipissing First Nation, and both his parents are traditional healers. He decided to create a visual healing experience, based on the concept of the 13 full moons of the lunar calendar (the calendar his people followed before converting to Western ways). Each blue box represents a different full moon, and inside are messages that pay tribute to a matriarchal society. “There are more female front-line workers than men, so I wanted the piece to not only honour the polarities and dualities of life, but the power of femininity as well,” says Quentin. He also added more layers of Indigenous teachings, like sacred geometry patterns and medicine wheel symbols and chose to spell out “thank you” in graffiti-style lettering at the bottom to pay homage to the mural’s location in Graffiti Alley.

MURAL UPDATE

As mentioned above Jarus has painted on this Graffiti Alley wall previously.

2018

Monday Mural

I'm linking up at Monday Mural 

September 2019 - Toronto ON

The wall alongside the Long & McQuade parking lot got an artistic refresh.

Working with the theme of "Celebrating Creativity", it was interpreted as music by Jarus and Jason Pinney of One Day Creates.

A mix of cubanism and realism created this beautiful piece - and features a precious Les Paul guitar.

This is a mural update - as seen in 2018. This link contains a history of the Long and McQuade business.

Back in 2008, Jason adorned the same wall with a scene celebrating the community with music.

As an aside, the building contains a historical plaque also about music.

The Concord Tavern opened in this building on June 14, 1948. It originally operated as a restaurant with live music, hosting big band concerts. There was no cover charge; the alcohol-free section was marked on the floor with tape. During the early 1960s, as the focus shifted to rock, country, and blues music, major acts such as Conway Twitty, Bo Diddley, and Duane Eddy came here to play. Around the same time, musician Ronnie Hawkins recruited a house band, The Hawks, who played high-energy rockabilly during the club's twist dance parties. The Hawks performed seven nights a week, sometimes sleeping upstairs. They later became The Band, one of North America's most influential groups, and created a new electric sound as Bob Dylan's back-up band. As business waned in the late 1970s and early 1980s, management increasingly booked adult performers. The Concord Tavern closed in 1983.

Monday Mural

I'm linking up at Monday Mural

June 2019 - Toronto ON

New murals at Stackt, Front and Bathhurst.

ELICSER - always happy to see his work! Click on his name in labels below to see more of his work.

BKEZ  (Bareket) Click on her name in labels below to see more of her work.

Young Jarus

This references a news story from 1981.

On Feb. 4, 1981, the Toronto gay community, like many communities, was somewhat fractured, with many disparate voices and factions offering opinions on how to advance their issues.

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But the next night marked a pivotal moment in galvanizing the community — when police officers armed with crowbars and sledgehammers raided four city bathhouses and arrested more than 250 gay men.

Click here to see Toronto's Pride Village murals.

Monday Mural

Linking up at Monday Mural

June 2018 - Toronto ON

Click here for a first glimpse of this vibrant Liberty Village neighbourhood and here for some doors in the area.
Click here for some of the silo and hopper murals.

Emmanuel Jarus co-created the Liberty Street Cyclery mural, and is also responsible for a few other murals that can be found throughout Toronto. Born in Regina, Saskatchewan, Jarus is a world-renowned artist that initially became recognized online for his work on freight trains, which he explains gave him a gateway into a new community.