Toronto Graffiti Street Art | Early April 2021 Urban Exploration Finds

Ben Johnston & Trevor Wheatley Mural

Keep Going by typography duo Ben Johnston and Trevor Wheatley. They have worked together on a lot of mural all over the city.

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ShitShow Graffiti

Another Shitshow45 find on Adelaide Street !

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Half Decent Murals

Found two Half Decent murals in graffiti alley. His latest artwork is in black and white.

And his Instagram account is also in black and white

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The third mural is actually off of Spadina but they kinda seem to go together.

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Kevin Ledo Mural

Managed to get a good photo of this Kevin Ledo mural.

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Sticker Graffiti Art

Also fun to find some new stickers !

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Flips Mural

This mural was painted back when the Raptors won the basketball championship. It had been tagged and Flips painted his addition to the mural.

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Lady Mural

Noticed this new mural tucked on a door in the back of an alley.

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Beaver Queer Bar Mural
🏳️‍🌈

This is kinda of a bittersweet story. For years I had been trying to get a picture of this mural without any garbage cans in front. I refuse to remove any umm well.. refuse for any picture ! I’ve seen to many rats in these alleys.

Anyway, this is the back of a Queer bar that I hung out at for years and years. It was even voted the best LGBTQ bar as recently as 2019. It wasn’t really my fave bar but my friends live close by so it was usually the warm up bar or sometimes the bar we went to afterwards. Or sometimes it was just the bar we went to before going to someone’s place.

Diatribe

Long story short the bar closed last year because of the pandemic and the endless lock downs. Normally, this place would be filled with party goers over the Pride Weekend. Long line ups and drag shows plus Djs who were way cooler than you. Even though I’m not particularly hip.. some of my friends are and this was the place to hang out. Sometimes we even got to rub shoulders with some local celebs here. I used to smoke and that back patio behind the fence was the place I rushed to after getting a beer.

Unfortunately, its all gone now and its like they say ‘you don’t know what you got to its gone’. Personally, I blame the lack of leadership – municipal, provincially and federally for the way this pandemic was handled. Too many lockdowns and very little support for businesses like this.

I was trying not to get political but one of the most powerful things you can do is VOTE. So VOTE for better leaders in upcoming elections because the ones we have right now have failed us all !

Back to the mural: I honestly do not know who this artwork is by. I always thought it was of Bette Page with her famous bangs. There is another mural inside but I always loved this one more. On the left someone drew a pink heart and you can’t read the inscription above.. but it reads like this:

“art is where the heart is”

So true !