Petal and Stone

A 10,000 square-foot mural project inaugurates the Gardiner Wallworks series, transforming this concrete expanse into a poetic tableau of site memory, native flora, and symbolic passage. Inspired by the architecture and ecological communities bridging The Bentway and Exhibition Place, it offers commuters and residents an evocative new lens on their urban landscape.

The building of the Gardiner Expressway transformed the shape of Toronto, and decades later, the city, in turn, has grown and evolved around this vital piece of infrastructure.   

Situated at the northern edge of the Exhibition Place campus is an enclosed area under the Gardiner Expressway known as “the Cubicles.” This concrete block complex is often overlooked, but acts as a backdrop for thousands of commuters as well as residents living in nearby vertical communities. Now, this once blank wall, stretching over 10,000 sq-feet, is being transformed into a monumental civic storyboard, signaling new openness, depth and critical connectivity across the Gardiner corridor. 

Petal and Stone is a mural designed by Canadian artist, Rebecca Munce – the artist’s first large scale public art project, and the inaugural commission for the Gardiner Wallworks rotating series. Through painting and etched line work Munce draws from her studio practice to explore site memory, native flora, and a series of ornate passageways  that reimagines the concrete wall as a veil between The Bentway and the historic gates of Exhibition Place. Viewers are encouraged to dive deeper — as if its surface were being gently peeled open to reveal a parallel architecture beneath. 

Munce weaves whispers of the arches, towers, and spires from the Exhibition Place’s historic architecture throughout the composition, forming a set of dreamlike, visual bridges between the mural and our city. Local vegetation, Black-eyed Susan, Wild Columbine, and Wild Bergamot guide viewers through a series of passageways as Goldenrod blooms alongside them, reminiscent of their vibrant presence in the summertime. 

Here, the wall becomes an invitation to engage with our public spaces, transforming civic infrastructure into a new local landmark to travel and return to. As commuters travel across the site on the train, bike, or on foot, Petal and Stone creates a visual rhythm that echoes the movement of the Gardiner above — transforming a highway underpass into a site of movement, storytelling and imagination.  

This exhibit is the fourth in a series of collaborative presentations by Exhibition Place and The Bentway demonstrating the power of public art and the vast future possibilities for The Gardiner, including increased connectivity and shared public space along its length.  Read more about The Bentway’s evolving vision for under-Gardiner spaces here.

What to expect:

• The Cubicles Building at Exhibition Place is closed to public access, but its exterior mural is visible from the surrounding area. We recommend viewing this mural from the Strachan Ave Bridge on the pedestrian walkway.
• This outdoor mural is a work in progress and being produced over several weeks, visitors will be able to experience the evolution of its changing details. 

collaborators

project team

Producer: ASHOP Productions 

supporters