The Lassonde Art Trail is Now Open in Toronto’s Biidaasige Park

Now open in Toronto’s Port Lands, the Lassonde Art Trail brings contemporary art into one of the city’s largest waterfront redevelopment projects. Set across more than four kilometers in Biidaasige Park on the island of Ookwemin Minising, the trail combines permanent commissions, long-term loans, and rotating installations across newly created public parkland, with the art built into the larger redevelopment plan itself. The works are distributed through new parkland, wetlands, and public space, tying the trail directly to the larger remaking of the waterfront.

The opening program includes Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka, Alexandre Arrechea, Caroline Monnet and Dean Baldwin Lew, Hank Willis Thomas, Kara Hamilton, Kent Monkman, Lisa Hirmer, Monira Al Qadiri, Nadia Belerique and Tony Romano, Oluseye, Ryan Gander, and Tracey Emin. The lineup moves between Indigenous, Canadian, and international artists, with works ranging from new commissions to institutional loans and longer-term public installations.

It’s the individual projects that show how wide that range is. Kent Monkman’s contribution is his first permanent public sculpture and centers Indigenous presence and the significance of water at the site. Monira Al Qadiri’s First Sun, initially presented at Doris C. Freedman Plaza in Central Park, came to Toronto through a co-commission with Public Art Fund and connects the trail to a larger North American public art network. Hamilton’s work, developed through York University’s L.L. Odette Sculptor in Residence program, brings research on organic materials and site ecology into the mix. Emin’s work arrives through a loan from the National Gallery of Canada, placing a sculpture from the national collection outdoors and free to the public.

The relationship with the National Gallery will continue shaping the trail over the next year. In March, the museum announced a major sculpture commission by Alicja Kwade for installation in May 2027. The work will use locally sourced granite from the Canadian Shield, with fabrication taking place in part in the Greater Toronto Area. Joana Vasconcelos’ Artemisa, a permanent tree-like sculpture clad in hand-painted ceramic tiles, is also scheduled for 2027 and will enter the City of Toronto’s Public Art & Monuments Collection.