The Bentway and Exhibition Place is unveiling Petal and Stone, a brand new public mural by Canadian artist Rebecca Munce, which is able to remodel a ten,000 sq. ft. concrete wall situated beneath the Gardiner Expressway. The mural might be accessible to view from October 24, 2025, coinciding with Art Toronto.
The mural represents the primary fee in a rotating collection of works that might be displayed in The Bentway dubbed the Gardiner Wallworks collection.
The Bentway is that house that opens up beneath the Gardiner Expressway because it winds into town. It’s a public house that connects many alternative areas from the GO and VIA prepare tracks to Fort York, Exhibition Place, and the neighbourhoods round it. It’s turn into a social hub, a spot for occasions, and exhibitions like Petal and Stone. You’ll be able to try the 2024/25 annual report 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 consists of 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 via 2027.
We talked to artist Rebecca Munce concerning the undertaking.
Rebecca Munce, artist
A local of Toronto, artist Rebecca Munce makes her dwelling 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 quite a lot of solo and group exhibitions in Montréal, Toronto, and New York Metropolis since 2015. Her work has additionally been proven at varied 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 recollects.
The Bentway, maybe impressed together 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 undertaking of the size required earlier than; 10,000 sq. ft is quite a lot of 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’ll be able to see it from the Strachan bridge,” she says. The wall, as she explains, was already standing in the best location, within the house the place the Bentway opens to Exhibition Place gates. The placement recommended 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.”
Photos and Motifs
Rebecca’s work usually examines various worlds and religious universes.
“I do it via a lens of mythology,” Rebecca explains.
She says she usually makes use of structure for inspiration, and architectural components as motifs, together with the thought of portals or transition factors between one world and one other. The scope of the undertaking match together with her ideas.
“It was actually nice to work on this.”
The collaborative nature of placing collectively the large-scale undertaking is one other bonus of the general public undertaking.
“I’m used to working alone on these panels,” she says. Her works are usually conceived at that scale; small and intimate, and designed in a means that individuals can stand 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 distinct form of proposal. How might she get her drawing throughout on the media and scale? The right way to present brush strokes and different textural element?
“It was a extremely, actually attention-grabbing expertise,” Munce relates.
Public artwork tasks by their nature require a distinct strategy. “It’s time to do totally different concepts. The house dictates the work.” That is available in distinction together with her normal practises.
She developed a symbology associated to native vegetation and animals, tapestry and architectural components, and the thought of transition. “It’s form of a veil.” The mural beckons viewers to stroll via the house. “In all this, it’s an invite to discover.”
Whereas it’s seen from above to commuters, the angle is predicated 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 via town and its neighbourhoods.”
You will discover out extra particulars concerning the undertaking 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.
