Kent Monkman beaver sculpture installed on Toronto’s Lassonde Art Trail
The Lassonde Art Trail (LAT), Canada’s most ambitious open-air destination dedicated to public art, officially culminates its launch season on Toronto’s waterfront with the unveiling of The Colony (2026), a new permanent public artwork from groundbreaking Cree artist Kent Monkman. Located in Toronto’s Biidaasige Park, the Art Trail will continue to build upon its lauded launch season, which marks the beginning of a captivating long-term program of free, year-round rotating and permanent installations by leading contemporary artists.
Monkman’s first-ever public art commission, The Colony references the essential role that beavers have played in the natural, Indigenous, and colonial histories of Turtle Island (North America). Standing over 15 feet tall and rendered in bronze with a verdigris patina – a reference to 19th century sculpture and the idea of permanence – Monkman’s larger-than-life beaver colony is a nod to the mistahi-amiskwak, the giant beavers of traditional Cree stories and the Castoroides of the Pleistocene era (or “Ice age”). Playful and inviting, they feast, sing, dance, and celebrate, evoking Indigenous ceremonies, Indigenous knowledges, and Indigenous joy, as well as the opulent baroque sculptures of the gardens at Versailles.
Once numbering in the hundreds of millions, beavers were crucial shapers of ecosystems on this continent. Like their Indigenous human relatives prior to the genocide that decimated their populations, beavers were eventually reduced to only 100,000 by colonial commercial and political competition. Today they thrive across Turtle Island. In this reclaimed land on the shores of Lake Ontario, The Colony honours the beaver and invites them to once again assert their presence, share their knowledge, and help restore our ecosystems.
The sculpture’s concept responds to the ecology of its permanent home in Biidaasige Park, as well as its proximity to the water, where the newly formed mouth of the Don River meets Lake Ontario. Park visitors are invited to move through The Colony and experience its many elements from multiple vantage points.
Monkman’s new commission is one of two permanent destination sculptures that will anchor the Lassonde Art Trail. Commissioned and managed by LAT, The Colony will be gifted to the City of Toronto Public Art and Monuments Collection. The second permanent sculpture, by internationally renowned Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos, will launch on the trail in 2027.
With the addition of The Colony, LAT comprises 17 sculptures, 11 of which are new commissions conceptualized in dialogue with LAT to respond to their unique site context. The launch program includes sculptures by Monira Al Qadiri, Alexandre Arrechea, Nadia Belerique & Tony Romano, Tracey Emin, Ryan Gander, Kara Hamilton, Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka, Lisa Hirmer, Caroline Monnet & Dean Baldwin Lew, Kent Monkman, Oluseye, Virginia Overton, and Hank Willis Thomas.
The Lassonde Art Trail sits at the heart of Biidaasige Park, Toronto’s largest new park to open in a generation, part of one of North America’s most ambitious urban revitalization projects, delivered by Waterfront Toronto. Funded by a $1.4 billion tri-government investment, the initiative has reshaped Toronto’s eastern waterfront through flood protection, ecological restoration, new public spaces, and home to future mixed-use residential communities. 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 both the City of Toronto and Waterfront Toronto for their partnership and collaboration in bringing the Art Trail to life.
For more information and to sign up to the art trail’s newsletter, please visit: www.latfoundation.org.
