Sun/Shade at The Bentway
Throughout the twentieth century, few forces have impacted the shape of North American cities as significantly as the sun. The Bentway’s summer exhibition of free public art brings together artists, designers, and researchers to explore how new thinking about sun and shade can help cities adapt to rising temperatures and create more comfortable urban spaces.
Until October 5, 2025
The Bentway, Toronto
Free
Photo by Samuel Engelking
Seeing Celsius by LeuWebb Projects
What happens when we can see heat? By adding thermal-imaging technology to the familiar viewfinder found at scenic lookout points, local Toronto duo LeuWebb Projects enables you to see the temperature differences across The Bentway space and the bodies that move through it. It’s fun, interactive, and a new perspective that will shift how you view urban spaces and the materials that shape them.
Photo by Samuel Engelking
Casting a Net, Casting a Spell by Celeste
Mexico City artist duo Celeste built a massive hand-painted, quilted canopy that casts welcomed shade down to a seating area below, offering relief from the heat and a space for gathering. Like a suncatcher, Casting a Net, Casting a Spell embraces and harnesses the sun, weaving in archetypes that have surrounded the sun since ancient times.
Photo by Samuel Engelking
la sombra que te cobija by Edra Soto
A geometric pavilion invites you to cross under the Gardiner, casting both a cooling effect and ornate shadow patterns. Edra Soto’s installation references the shade-making façades of working-class Puerto Rican bungalows to create an expansive, sun-filtering threshold, reflecting on the intersection of heat-responsive architecture, place-making, and cultural heritage.
Photo by Samuel Engelking
Also Check Out…
While you’re at The Bentway’s main site, also check out Second Shade, a towering structure by New York artist Mary Mattingly. A few blocks east at The Bentway Studio (55 Fort York Blvd), check out the window installation Bathed in Strange Light by Hamilton’s Natalie Hunter, and NL Architects’ roaming urban canopy Moving Forest. One block from there, at Bentway Staging Grounds under the Gardiner, explore Declaration of the Understory, where Secwépemc artist Tania Willard imagines the space below the highway as a tree canopy.
Upcoming Events
June 11 and more: Weekly Art Socials, $15
June 12 – 15: Sand Flight contemporary dance performances, from $10
June 16: Sun/Shade Curators’ Tour, free
On until July 20: Moving Forest roves the city
About The Bentway
The Bentway works to ignite the urban imagination, using the city as site, subject, and canvas.
Anchored under Toronto’s Gardiner Expressway and guiding its complex future, The Bentway is a growing public space, and much more. The Bentway is a new type of civic organization: a not-for-profit, powered by vital partnerships with the City of Toronto, residents, supporters, artists, city-builders, and dreamers. The Bentway is a catalyst rooted in experimentation, leading a creative movement to re-imagine the opportunities of urban spaces. ​
The Bentway
250 Fork York Blvd, Toronto
Thebentway.ca
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Accessibility:
The Bentway is fully accessible. For more information, visit here.
The Bentway’s Summer 202s season is generously supported by:
Sun-Safety Partner: David Cornfield Melanoma Fund
Seasonal Supporters: Balsam Foundation, City of Toronto, Tand D Bank Group
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