Striking Urban Wildlife Art

This past weekend, Toronto-based artist Clare Allin showcased a range of her artwork at Signatures Beaches Arts and Crafts Show in Kew Gardens, a grassroots Canadian marketplace and art show that centers around the works of over 150 independent local artists and makers.

For those unfamiliar, Allin’s work focuses on the intersection between nature and city life, drawing attention to the illusory line that humans have drawn between themselves and the natural world. In particular, her pieces, such as ‘Otis,’ ‘Cardinals,’ and ‘Burt and Ernie’ depict the way in which this ecological tension exists and operates in her own city of Toronto, Canada.

While Allin’s art possesses an urgent and sobering quality – especially in the case of her ‘Bovine’ series – it also skillfully sidesteps the didactic finger-wagging that too often bogs down activist-driven artwork. Perhaps, this is the reason her series ‘Scum City’ resonated so strongly with audiences over the weekend at Kew Gardens, as it explores a potentially weighty topic – the humanization of animals – in a less heavy-handed and more nuanced and textured manner. What’s more, it is also likely that Toronto’s recent coyote spottings, and their surrounding hysteria, served to lend Allin’s work an added level of relevance, just in time for the show.

"Ruth and John, the organizers of Beaches Arts and Crafts Show, did an amazing job this year at creating a welcoming, community-driven environment that made it easy for me to showcase my art," explained Allin in a recent interview. "Without them, I don’t think my work would have resonated with visitors quite like it did. I received a lot of positive feedback regarding the unique quality of my booth and artwork; it was great to see that my art could strike a chord with such a diverse group of visitors."