Here’s Everything You To Know About the Lassonde Art Trail East Sculptures

Toronto’s new waterfront destination begins a spectacular rollout of public artworks

TORONTO, June 4, 2026 — The Lassonde Art Trail (LAT), Canada’s most ambitious open-air destination dedicated to public art, has officially commenced its 2026 launch season on Toronto’s waterfront.

Spanning over 4 kilometres through Biidaasige Park, a City of Toronto Park on the newly created island Ookwemin Minising, LAT offers free, year-round access to a dynamic program of permanent and rotating artworks by leading contemporary artists.

Launching today, LAT East debuts as a unique open-air cultural experience, with LAT West following in late July in alignment with the opening of the western section of Biidaasige Park. New artworks will continue to be unveiled through fall, marking the beginning of a captivating long-term program of rotating and permanent public art installations.

17 sculptures

The inaugural program comprises 17 sculptures, eleven of which are new commissions
conceptualized in dialogue with LAT to respond to their unique site context. Future
highlights in 2027 include a major destination artwork by Joana Vasconcelos, and a
partnership with the National Gallery of Canada to realize a monumental commission by
internationally renowned sculptor Alicja Kwade.

What is the Lassonde Art Trail?

The Lassonde Art Trail sits at the heart of one of North America’s most ambitious urban
revitalization projects delivered by Waterfront Toronto. This $1.4 billion tri-government
investment has reshaped Toronto’s waterfront through flood protection, ecological
restoration, and new public space. Embedded within this transformed landscape, LAT reflects a commitment to environmental awareness and sustainability. Many of the artworks engage directly with themes of climate change, material innovation, and ecological stewardship, while LAT’s operations and programming prioritize long-term environmental responsibility.

The Lassonde Art Trail is made possible through gifts from visionary founding donors, led by
a transformational $25 million gift from philanthropist Pierre Lassonde to support two
permanent landmark commissions and a long-term program of rotating artworks.
Established in part as a matching fund, additional donations will allow LAT to flourish and
continue its ambitious programming of new artworks for generations to come. LAT is
grateful to the City of Toronto for their partnership and to Waterfront Toronto for their
collaboration in bringing the Art Trail to life.

ARTWORK DETAILS — LAT EAST | Now on view

Alexandre Arrechea
Orange Functional, 2022 (lead photo)

Presents a new iteration of Orange Functional, reimagining the basketball hoop as both
sculptural form and social platform. Positioned at one of the main entrances to Biidaasige
Park, the work invites public interaction while reframing play as a lens for engaging the
surrounding landscape.

Nadia Belerique & Tony Romano
Homing, 2026

Present their first oAicial collaboration, a large-scale installation that centres the dining
room table as a complex site of many experiences, emotions, and moments of sharing. The
sculpture is inspired by the environment of Biidaasige Park— the river, bridges, wildlife,
picnic areas, and things lost or found. From a distance, the sum of Homing’s many parts
suggest the shape of a mythical creature, reflecting the artists’ collaborative process and
the unexpected ways that ideas, memories, and encounters come together in public
space.

Tracey Emin
Roman Standard, 2013

LAT’s launch program includes the loan of a sculpture by British artist Tracey Emin from the
National Gallery of Canada’s collection. The small bronze songbird perched high on a tall
pole reimagines an ancient military symbol as a gentle point of contemplation amongst the
native trees, shrubs, wetland species and nesting sites. This early collaboration
underscores the NGC’s commitment to expanding public access to artworks from its
collection across the country and is part of its growing National Engagement initiative,
which is generously supported by Michael Nesbitt, with additional funding from the
National Gallery of Canada Foundation.

Ryan Gander
Stories of relics, 2026

Presents a site-responsive commission that features four sculptures, installed throughout
June and July, inspired by timekeeping devices from different moments in history. Each one
will emerge like a fossil from a large armourstone—a quarried material used in the park
landscape. By juxtaposing human systems of measuring time with ancient stones, Gander
invites us to slow down and reflect on our habitual relationship with time and the site’s far
older, glacial past.

Kara Hamilton
Delicate Matter (for the birds), 2026

Explores the idea of re-wilding through sculptural composition, using organic materials
including straw, soil, and plant life. Sculpted by hand, two busts formed of cob and brass
musical instruments emerge from plinths of rammed earth. Hamilton’s project is made
possible through her 2025 participation in the Odette Sculptor-in-Residence program with
the support of AMPD students – a partnership between LAT and York University in Toronto.

Caroline Monnet & Dean Baldwin Lew
Trajet, 2019 City of Toronto Public Art & Monuments Collection

Trajet acknowledges footprints made by Indigenous ancestors that were uncovered in blue
clay on the floor of Lake Ontario in 1908. Using a sketch made before the footprints were
erased by the building of a waterworks tunnel in 1908, Monnet and Baldwin Lew invited
Indigenous community members to reaffirm this 1,000-year-old historical presence. Part
of the City of Toronto Public Art & Monuments Collection Trajet was commissioned by the
City alongside Typha, a second sculpture by Baldwin Lew that can be viewed at Leslie
Street and Lakeshore Boulevard. Trajet is permanently integrated into the landscape of
Biidaasige Park on the Lassonde Art Trail.

Oluseye
Crown Act, 2026

Debuts a specially conceived sculpture for public space that draws inspiration from
Ontario’s connection to the Underground Railroad—the network of routes through which
enslaved African Americans sought freedom. The sculpture also references escape maps
sometimes concealed within the braided hairstyles of enslaved women. Carved in
sustainable wood, Crown Act transforms a braided hair pattern into a large-scale playful
labyrinth that is designed for visitors to walk through and convene within. At the center, a
cowrie shell emerges, symbolizing arrival, safety, and liberation.

LAT WEST | July 2026

Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka

Against the wind, with the wind, 2026

Presents a newly commissioned series of sculptures that respond to the revitalization of
the Don River and the return of multiple fish species to its waters. Five flagpoles support a
school of fish sculptures based on koinobori, traditional Japanese streamers. For
Hatanaka, the fish sculptures also recall fish mythologies that symbolize strength within
fragility and the power of determination over adversity. The fish seen in the sculpture are
modelled on species in the local ecosystem: Pickerel and Pumpkinseed recently returned
to the river, and Carp, an invasive species found in Lake Ontario and its wetlands.

Lisa Hirmer
Lodestar, 2026

For LAT’s commission, Hirmer builds on her series Careful Infrastructures for Reassembled
Lands, a collection of short poetic texts installed across the Toronto harbour, on the waterfront at Merchant’s Wharf. These earlier works responded to the initial phases of the Port Lands and Don River mouth restoration. In Lodestar, her text stacks ideas and facts of the site’s past, present, and future. Its polished chrome surface will mirror its surroundings, continually transforming in response to the local environment.

Virginia Overton
Untitled (Juniper), 2014

Presents Untitled (Juniper), a fully functioning weathervane adorned with the ornamental
feature of a juniper tree. Juniperus virginiana or the eastern red cedar is native to Ontario
and is also commonly found throughout the southern part of the United States, where
Overton grew up. The work is an ode to the artist’s relationship with this tree species and to
those newly planted across Biidaasige Park.

Hank Willis Thomas
Ernest and Ruth (Exuberant Pink), 2018
Saverio and Daisy (Navel), 2018

Presents two playful sculptures Ernest and Ruth made in the iconic shape of a cartoon
speech bubble, and Saverio and Daisy in the form of a thought bubble. Like much of
Thomas’s work, these two sculptures explore the shifting perspectives of audience
participation and interaction. Positioned along the spectacular harbour-facing new
promenade in Biidaasige Park, they frame the city skyline and act as windows onto our
urban experience.

Fall 2026

Monira Al Qadiri
First Sun, 2025

Presents a large-scale sculpture exploring natural mythologies that features a large-scale
human bust with a scarab beetle for its visage. Inspired by Khepri, the ancient Egyptian god
of the rising sun, the painted cast aluminum sculpture serves as a monument to a time
when insects were revered as deities and regarded as the oldest creators of the universe. Al
Qadiri highlights the divide humans often create between themselves and nature, inviting
reflection on the interconnectedness of all life forms and the need for conscious
environmental stewardship.

A co-commission developed with Public Art Fund in New York and first exhibited at Doris C.
Freedman Plaza in NYC, Al Qadiri’s sculpture was conceptualized to respond to and link
two urban, man-made park systems—Central Park in NYC and Biidaasige Park in Toronto.

Kent Monkman
The Colony, 2026

Debuts his first permanent public sculpture with The Colony, which references the
essential role that Castor canadensis (beavers) has played in the natural, Indigenous, and
colonial histories of Turtle Island. Monkman’s larger-than-life beavers are a nod to the
mistahi-amiskwak, the giant beavers of traditional Cree stories and the Castoroides of
Pleistocene era. They feast, sing, dance, and celebrate, evoking Indigenous ceremonies, as
well as the opulent baroque sculptures of the gardens at Versailles. Playful and inviting, the
beavers of The Colony speak to complex histories as well as future possibilities.

Coming in 2027

Alicja Kwade
Is commissioned by the National Gallery of Canada in dialogue with LAT to create her
largest and most ambitious public sculpture to date. Using locally sourced materials
including Canadian Shield granite, the sculpture extends her exploration of time, space,
and perception into the context of Toronto’s waterfront.

Joana Vasconcelos
Artemisa

Selected from a shortlist of five artists, Vasconcelos is creating a significant destination
sculpture for LAT. Artemisa takes inspiration from the story of seeds reawakening after lying
dormant under the earth on the site for more than a hundred years. The proposed vibrant tree-like sculpture pays homage to these seeds. Meticulously clad in thousands of hand-painted ceramic tiles, it will read as a painting in the landscape. Artemisa will serve as a permanent landmark on LAT.

Quick Facts

• LAT East launches today with sculptures by Alexandre Arrechea, Nadia Belerique &
  Tony Romano, Tracey Emin, Ryan Gander, Kara Hamilton, Caroline Monnet & Dean
  Baldwin Lew, and Oluseye.
• In late July, LAT West will unveil works by Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka, Lisa Hirmer,
  Virginia Overton, Hank Willis Thomas, and additional artworks in the series by Ryan
  Gander.
• In September, Kent Monkman’s highly anticipated permanent sculpture will debut
  and a sculpture by Monira Al Qadiri, a co-commission with Public Art Fund, will be
  installed in LAT West, completing LAT’s inaugural season.
• Programming will continue to expand beyond LAT’s opening season with major new
  commissions slated for 2027 that include a large-scale sculpture by Alicja Kwade,
  commissioned by the National Gallery of Canada and developed with LAT, and a
  second permanent destination artwork by Joana Vasconcelos.