Banksy in the alley

Banksy's Toronto graffiti still survives, barely, in a few places. Luckily he picked the right alley on Church Street because the building next door looks like it is coming down, while the second one away is down - done like dinner, nothing left but the splinters.

I was surprised to see that the Church Street Keg Restaurant has moved out of it's old building and into a new home on The Esplanade. I worked in that Keg for one night covering their staff party night - that's right I used to work for the Keg (Mississauga (the old Dixie-Dundas Keg) and the Brampton (the old downtown Brampton Keg)). Sadly, I just noticed that all my old Keg Restaurants are gone! I met and married my wife when we worked at the Keg and I have a ton of great memories from those days. Rock on Keg Staff.

No Love for Banksy

Banksy's graffiti has taken quite the abuse since he first painted his works on the walls of Toronto. Many have been totally destroyed or defaced. It is both sad and ironic that his street art/graffiti gets painted over. But I do love Banksy.

On Wild West Queen Street West I find more art. It's like CityTV; everywhere. A beautiful girl looks down onto Queen Street pedestrians passing by (pictured above) from Omy Gallery. There website says "Pabst is the best beer for shows & you better have good art or nobody will show up".

At Trinity Bellwoods Park I see a "Where's Omar" poster stuck in the entrance gate. I also find some posters stuck on a pole, the posters have multiplied and are thick on the pole and have started to peel off.

Banksy Art Graffiti

There has been a new style of graffiti appearing around the downtown core of Toronto. Seven pieces were reported to be the work of Banksy, who is an famous yet anonymous artist from England, in town to promote his film Exit Through the Gift Shop. His artwork commands prices up to $500,000 plus and he likes to use images of rats such as this one at Spadina and Sullivan. Update: The rat was treated to a 'no love' graffiti tagover and by June of 2011 the 'n' has been removed (see photo below) - now it's 'o love'!

Banksy's work which is really different from the traditional colourful graffiti and tags that fill many surfaces in Toronto. Some of the art shows men in suits holding signs that say things like "0% interest in people". I hoped to be able to find the works and take some pictures but people said that they were asked to not reveal the locations of the pieces.

The great blog Torontoist was eagerly following the story and reported when a piece was destroyed or painted over and I was watching my chances of seeing the work in person rapidly diminish. Then Torontoist finally decided to release the locations and grabbing our GPS we headed out on a satellite guided expedition to see the remaining paintings. Thanks Torontoist!

This one in an alley on Dundas Street West at Manning Avenue was my favourite and has been tagged over by several jealous people. The sign which read "will work for idiots" was changed to "we will not be erased" still visible through the red and white tag. A monk has now been placed at the feet of the original art.




This piece is on a building on the south side of Lake Shore Boulevard West between York and Bay. A vulture has been added on top of the figure since the original painting was done.


The last remaining one we saw was this smaller painting on Church Street just north of The Esplanade. Torontoist tells a great story where the owner was about to paint over the graffiti when he was told how much they could be worth. He soon covered it over in plexiglass for protection - and it is still there to be viewed and appreciated.



See the state of the Banksy art in the alley in early 2011 on my blog post here.