Toronto Artist Cruz Turns Sunlight Into a 30-Foot Cyanotype Mural on Ossington
A new Toronto cyanotype mural is turning the city’s final summer sunlight into public art. Toronto artist Cruz (@vnyvc) created the large-scale installation with Corona Canada. The work now stands at 139 Ossington Avenue.
The mural measures 30 feet by 15 feet and contains 80 hand-stitched canvas panels. Cruz created every section through cyanotype printing rather than conventional digital production. Sunlight played a direct role in exposing each image onto raw canvas.
A 19th-Century Process Meets Toronto Summer
Cyanotype dates to the earliest years of photography. Scientist John Herschel introduced the process during the 1840s. It uses light-sensitive chemicals and ultraviolet exposure to produce its recognizable deep-blue imagery.
The technique later became closely associated with botanist and photographer Anna Atkins. Smithsonian Magazine has documented Atkins’ use of cyanotypes for her groundbreaking botanical work. Her process transformed natural specimens into detailed blue-and-white photographic studies.
Cruz brings that analogue approach into a much larger urban setting. She used photographic negatives instead of relying only on objects placed directly onto treated material. Toronto sunlight then exposed those images onto the canvas.
The process makes natural light more than the mural’s subject. It becomes part of how the finished artwork physically exists. That connection sits at the centre of the Corona Canada collaboration.
Cruz Captured Toronto Outdoors
The project began with Cruz documenting people spending summer outside across Toronto. She photographed candid scenes at Sugar Beach, Trinity Bellwoods, and Riverdale Park. Those images became the foundation for the campaign’s cyanotype works.
The installations also connect directly with the places Cruz photographed. Additional billboards appear near the parks where their featured scenes originated. The placement creates a visual connection between each photograph and its original Toronto setting.
Cyanotype artists have long worked closely with changing landscapes and natural conditions. The Guardian previously explored artist Meghann Riepenhoff’s cyanotypes created using waves, rain, wind, and sediment. Her work similarly allows the environment to influence the final image.
80 Canvas Panels Create the Ossington Mural
The Ossington installation marks Cruz’s largest project to date. The artist assembled its 80 individually created canvas sections into one 30-foot-wide composition. Each panel carries evidence of the analogue exposure process.
That handmade approach contrasts with the digital advertising surrounding much of the city. The campaign instead focuses on physical materials, sunlight, and unscripted outdoor interactions. It also gives Toronto pedestrians a reason to view the imagery away from a screen.
Contemporary artists continue to revisit cyanotype for similar reasons. The Guardian has covered the technique across both historical and contemporary photographic practices. Its reporting shows how sunlight remains essential to the process centuries after its invention.
Where to See the Installation
The campaign’s hero mural stands at 139 Ossington Avenue in Toronto. Smaller site-specific installations also connect with Sugar Beach, Trinity Bellwoods, and Riverdale Park. The works will remain around Toronto through September 21.
For Corona Canada, the campaign connects its outdoor-focused identity with a process that depends on natural sunlight. For Cruz, it brings an old photographic technique into a contemporary Toronto streetscape. The result captures summer memories using the same sun that helped create them.
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References:
- How the First Female Photographer Changed the Way the World Sees Algae
- Seascapes without a camera: Meghann Riepenhoff’s cyanotypes
- Blooming marvellous: the world’s first female photographer – and her botanical beauties
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