Past Exhibitions
Housepaint - Phase 2: Shelter
ClosedDecember 13, 2008 to July 5, 2009
Institute for Contemporary Culture
Roloff Beny Gallery, Level 4
The Institute for Contemporary Culture presents Housepaint, the first exhibition on the subject of street art in a major Canadian museum. Drawing attention to issues of poverty and homelessness, this ground-breaking exhibition is a collaboration between ten street artists in memory of the former residents of Tent City. Each artist has painted a colourful canvas house in their personal, exuberant style. In addition, five artists will respond to the previous installations by creating an original new work in the gallery over the course of the exhibition.
Tent City, a shanty town that stood on five acres of undeveloped land on the shores of Lake Ontario, spontaneously arose in the late 1990s. Its residents were evicted without warning in 2002.
Curated by Devon Ostrom of them.ca, Housepaint is on display until July 2009, at which point the canvas houses will be auctioned, with proceeds going to Habitat for Humanity.
One of Toronto's best-loved street artists, Elicser Elliot, installs his freshly painted Hug Me Tree in the gallery from March 16 to 20. The tree stood proudly on Queen Street West until last year, when it was knocked down by a car. To prevent its disposal, local merchants sat on the tree until a passerby in a truck rescued it. Elicser had painted the Hug Me Tree yearly on Queen Street, and at the ICC he is repainting the tree as well as creating a new background painting and a treehouse.
For more information, updates on the exhibition, to register for the auction, or to add your own comments, please visit www.housepaint.ca
Podcasts
Housepaint, Phase 2: Shelter
December 12, 2008
A time-lapse montage captures the set up of Housepaint, Phase 2: Shelter, a ground-breaking exhibition of street art in the Roloff Beny Gallery. Presented by the Institute for Contemporary Culture, ten street artists created colourful canvas house responding to issues of poverty and homelessness in memory of the former residents of Toronto's Tent City.
Video Podcast (20.88MB, 1m 28s)
Written Transcript (PDF)
The Housepaint project, curated by Devon Ostrom, was commissioned by Luminato Festival of Arts and Creativity, in collaboration with Manifesto Community Projects, as part of StreetScape 2008.
Program Partner: 
Media Partner: 
Other, Door Panel, 8x8’ Spraypaint and oil stick on wood, 2008. Photo by Tyler Young.
Dstrbo (HVW8), Housepaint Panel, 5x6’ Spraypaint on Canvas, 2008. Photo by Tyler Young.
The Hug Me Tree before it was knocked down in Summer 2008.
