Faces of Regent Park - Ines Garcia Painting

This mixed-media portrait is an original studio-based work that was scanned to create a laminated glass panel as part of my 2015 permanent public art installation Faces of Regent Park. The series of twelve portraits was installed in Toronto’s Regent Park as part of the neighbourhood’s massive twenty-year revitalization. Each of the mixed-media portraits depict a resident from the newly revitalized neighbourhood, which has been transformed from one that formerly housed only social housing residents, to a neighbourhood that has a 50/50 split of social housing and market-rate units. Aesthetically the work combines the familiarity of the human face with the distressed surfaces of aged architecture and infrastructure found in the urban environment. The graffiti tags have been meticulously rendered from actual markings found in the neighbourhood and act as representational signifiers of human presence on our streets, while the patterned effects symbolize the energy of human movement that give our cities their kinetic life. The vibrant and contrasting colours found within the backgrounds create a juxtaposition that helps to frame the black and white portraits, while simultaneously presenting the notion that we all stem from the same colourful tree.

Painting:Spray Paint on Paper

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:48 W x 74 H x 2.5 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.