What's coming up in public art in 2025
March 6, 2025
2025 is going to be a big year for public art! Over the course of the year, we’re excited to welcome several new public artworks to Edmonton’s public art collection. Along with previously announced pieces by Sanaz Mazinani for the new downtown greenspace Warehouse Park, and works by Morgan Melenka and Michelle Campos Castillo along the Valley Line West LRT expansion, Edmonton will soon be home to new works by some exceptional local and national artists, including Emily Chu, Alma-Louise Visscher, Heraa Khan, AJA Louden, Coda Girvan, and Marigold Santos.
Read on to learn more about some of the artists behind several new public art commissions coming to Edmonton this spring/summer.
Emily Chu: Edmonton Soccer Centres
Selected artist: Emily Chu
Public art project site: Two artworks at the Edmonton South Soccer Centre at 6520 Roper Road NW, one artwork at the Edmonton West Soccer Centre at 17415 106a Avenue NW, and one artwork at the Edmonton East Soccer Centre at 12720 Victoria Trail NW
Anticipated project install date: Summer 2025
New murals created by Edmonton artist Emily Chu will provide a splash of vibrancy at three of Edmonton’s indoor soccer centre facilities. Passionate about creating public art in community spaces for people of all ages, cultures, genders, and economic status, Emily’s mural project will share stories of community health, in a space that engages youth.
For this mural project, Emily is exploring the idea of playing with containers for movement; a limited space to shape and facilitate energy and creativity. Her sketch illustrating the concept for the South Soccer Centre uses bold shapes and a graphic approach depicting local wildflowers bounding off the perimeter of the container — growing, adapting, blooming, and intertwining. Keeping the location of the mural in mind, you can also spot a ball in each frame, dodging the botanical elements. The image captures a sense of movement, growth, interaction, activity, and competition.
Emily Chu is a Chinese illustrator, visual artist, and community organizer based on Treaty 6 (Edmonton). Emily’s practice includes commercial illustration, murals, storytelling, sketching, and community-arts initiatives. Her murals can be found at the Edmonton Chinatown Multi-Cultural Centre, Alberta Craft Gallery & Shop, Loblaws Ice District, ATB Edmonton/Red Deer, and Millennium Place, to name a few. She is also currently working on a personal graphic novel about “the last house in Chinatown”, funded by the Canada Council for the Arts.
Alma-Louise Visscher: Orange Hub Rehabilitation
Selected artist: Alma-Louise Visscher
Public art project site: Orange Hub parkade (facing 156 Street at 100 Avenue)
Anticipated project install date: Spring/summer 2025
Edmonton artist Alma-Louise Visscher was selected for the Orange Hub Parkade Public Art project. Alma creates fabric-based installations, soft sculptures, jewelry and drawings that consider resources and material culture and the poetic possibilities and problems within them. She is curious to explore the intersection of material and the unknowable, the ecology of places, and the things that hold us, care for us, and comfort us. This will be Alma’s first permanent public artwork in Edmonton.
The artwork development for the project takes cues from Alma’s research into local plant species and using plants used to generate dye, the woven mesh chainlink material of the façade, and the processes of growth and transformation.
Alma drew inspiration from the woven chainlink fencing that covers the parkade. “The history of how chainlink fencing was made (initially on the same industrial machines that wove fabric), brought me to look at weaving as both a metaphor and a physical process,” explains Alma. “In its current capacity as a community hub and resource centre and its history as a post-secondary campus, the Orange Hub links together different histories and versions of support and learning. Additionally, I thought of the mesh of the parkade as a trellis, acting as a supporting unit for growth. An initial guiding question that I asked myself was “What could grow with/beside/up the parkade.”
From this, she researched local plants – plants that might have grown or could grow on the site, plants that currently grow in the area, and plants that grow on the edges of things or thrive in recently disturbed sites. As part of this research, in August 2024 Alma held two ink-making workshops with participants from the community, exploring the colours of the site, plants, gardens, and kitchens that make up the spaces and communities around the Orange Hub. In the sessions, participants created natural inks derived from ink/plants/materials collected from the community. Colour samples and swatches documented from the sessions were then used to inform the colours of the public art installation.
The final artwork will take the form of abstracted interwoven shapes based on photos of plant-dyed fabric and images, constructed out of a constellation of small aluminum composite panels or large banners of the artwork printed on a thin polyester mesh material.
Heraa Khan: Zoie Gardner Park
Selected artist: Heraa Khan
Public art project site: Zoie Gardner Park (12710 70 Street NW)
Anticipated project install date: Spring/summer 2025
Heraa Khan was selected to create a mural design that will be printed onto panels to be installed on the west and east exterior walls of a washroom facility located at Zoie Gardner Park. Born in Lahore, Pakistan, Heraa completed her MFA from University of British Columbia Okanagan in 2023, and has exhibited her work in 30+ solo and group exhibitions across the globe.
In her art practice, she explores the connection between humanity and the natural world, examining how our relentless pursuit of progress disrupts the delicate balance that sustains our environment. In her work, Heraa also navigates her roots while adapting to a new cultural landscape, creating a dialogue between the East and the West. In this process, her art becomes a means of finding belonging and home, reflecting the complexities of merging different cultural influences and experiences.
AJA Louden: Balwin Park
Selected artist: AJA Louden
Public art project site: Castle Downs Park (11930 153 Avenue NW)
Anticipated project install date: Spring/summer 2025
AJA Louden (Edmonton) has been selected through a curatorial process to design a playground for Balwin Park. AJA is a Jamaican Canadian artist whose current work focuses on the cyclical nature of power, inspired by science-fiction and historical paintings. Louden’s recent use of textiles considers the roles of craft in Black communities and the history of craft in rural Alberta. Best known for his mural work, this public art project will provide an opportunity for AJA to showcase three-dimensional and design skills and fold in the ideas of his current artistic practice.
The concept for this project asks the question “what if in the future, we grow playgrounds from seeds?” Elements universally loved by children: the weird, playable and imaginative are incorporated while connecting to AJA’s current Afrofuturist and Solarpunk work. Piney P, a playful pineapple referred to as AJA’s son, will also appear throughout the park as a repeating motif.
An additional sensory element AJA has incorporated into the playground design is a drum circle. Drawing inspiration from the social experience that drumming can foster, and thinking of its ties to African, Caribbean and Indigenous cultures, this participatory element invites kids into a shared experience that AJA hopes will result in sound akin to beautiful jazz – and perhaps a bit of chaos.
Coda Girvan: Castle Downs
Selected artist: Coda Girvan
Public art project site: Castle Downs Park (11930 153 Avenue NW)
Anticipated project install date: Spring/summer 2025
Coda Girvan, a local Métis visual artist whose work focuses on hard-edge abstraction and breaking down organic matter into its most minimal form, has been selected to create a mural on all four sides of a washroom facility located at Castle Downs Park.
According to Coda, the primary goal of their artwork is to bring joy to others: “As a child, growing up I always felt strong emotions towards mural art, and was captivated by it. So, it has always been a lifelong dream to create art for my community. Public art keeps art accessible to everyone, which is important to me.”
While Coda is still in the concept creation phase of the project, it resonated with them that the kids in the neighbourhood are looking for something weird, colourful, and playful. “It’s really special to me because art is what inspired me at a young age,” recalls Coda. “I remember going to an art gallery on a field trip when I was a kid, and it was mind-blowing. It was a life-changing experience and ever since then, I have always wanted to paint. It’s fairly new to me to be showcasing my work publicly, but it’s an honour and it’s a really exciting project for sure. I’m eager to see the community’s reactions when it comes to the mural.”
Marigold Santos: Valley Line South East Millbourne/Woodvale stop
Selected artist: Marigold Santos
Public art project site: Millbourne/Woodvale LRT stop (on the east side of 66 Street, north of 38 Avenue NW)
Anticipated project install date: Spring/summer 2025
Marigold Santos was selected through a curatorial process for the Millbourne/Woodvale Valley Line SE LRT station. Marigold Santos, currently based in Calgary, is a Filipinx-Canadian artist known for work that examines the lived experience of immigration through themes of identity and culture. In addition to her mixed media work, Santos is a tattoo artist who interprets her heritage through drawings of folklore from the Philippines.
While developing her concepts for the station art, Marigold spoke with community members from the area to create a concept that speaks to the users of the stop. She noted the diversity of community members, with a significant number of new Canadians and immigrants, and that gardening was a unifying activity for many. The importance of growing food and flowers influenced the repeating botanical elements in her concept designs.
Stay tuned for more news on the additional upcoming public art projects to be installed later in 2025 and beyond:
- 103A Avenue and 99 Street Pedway: Susan Day
- Metro Line LRT Expansion (NAIT LRT): Bruno Canadien
- Peter Hemmingway Pool: Robbin Deyo
- Gerry Wright Operations and Maintenance Facility: Shaheer Zazai
- Whitemud Drive Expansion : Carrie Allison
- Warehouse Park: Sanaz Mazinani
- 107 Avenue Streetscape Improvements project: AJA Louden and Michelle Campos Castillo
