Brightening Barriers Exhibition

2026 Exhibition

• Urban Pulse Garden | Bohemia

  • Artist: Deniz Kanbal
  • Location: Bohemia, 125 Dunlop Street East
  • Medium: Acrylic on panel with layered dimensional materials
  • Year completed: 2026 
     

  Artist Statement

  Urban Pulse Garden is a public artwork composed of layered organic forms that flow across the barrier panels, creating a continuous visual rhythm along the streetscape. Inspired by both natural growth patterns and the movement of the city, the composition weaves together shapes resembling plant structures, cellular forms, and fluid landscapes.

  As pedestrians move along the installation, the artwork unfolds as a sequence of shifting forms and colour transitions, echoing the rhythms of urban life. The work reflects the subtle presence of organic systems within the built environment—plants emerging through sidewalks, layered textures of the city, and the coexistence of natural and constructed spaces.

  Artist Bio

  Deniz Kanbal is an Ontario-based visual artist working across painting, installation, and public art. Her practice explores organic forms, layered colour, and evolving visual systems that draw from both natural environments and urban life. Through intuitive processes and repetition, her work develops into immersive compositions that suggest movement, growth, and interconnected structures.

  Kanbal’s work has been exhibited in gallery settings and public contexts, and often expands into large-scale and site-responsive projects. She is interested in creating artworks that bring a sense of curiosity, rhythm, and visual energy into shared spaces.

  Connect with Deniz

  • denizindigo.com
  • Instagram @denizindigo
• Gaagigegesic | McReilly's Public House

  • Artist: Josie Val
  • Location: McReilly’s Public House, 82 Dunlop Street East
  • Medium: Acrylic paint on Pine Plywood
  • Year completed: 2026 
     

  Artist Statement

  Gaagigegesic is an exploration of what “Rhythms of the City” means through an Indigenous lens. Mishubizhu, is a water spirit with the body of a lynx and scales made of copper and the tail of a serpent that protects the water in all the great lakes, and the Binesi (Thunderbird), is a spirit that comes to cleanse the land with rain and lightning. Mishubizhu and the Thunderbird work in juxtaposition to each other as a way of balancing the waters and the sky world, in a rhythmic dance of protection. To ensure the relationship between the two spirits are acknowledged, we offer a feast plate during this time as the Thunderbird first comes to visit in the Spring. The name Gaagigegesic is in acknowledgement of my Anishinaabenosiwin (spirit name), Gaagigegesic Akwe, meaning forever skies woman.  This talks about the relationship between the sky and the water through the interconnectivity of where the two meet.  

  Artist Bio

  Josie Val is an Anishinaabe, eagle clan, multi-disciplinary artist from Batchewana First Nation. Her work depicts Ojibwe stories through an American traditional style. Working within traditional storytelling and land-based practices, her work explores the relationship between community and the living land we inhibit.

  Connect with Josie

  • Instagram @josie.val
• Scale | Dunlop Street Diner

  • Artist: Liam Winslow
  • Location: Dunlop Street Diner, 20 Dunlop Street East
  • Medium: Latex & Acrylic Paint on Plywood
  • Year completed: 2026 
     

  Artist Statement

  Scale celebrates present-day Barrie and the region’s Indigenous roots. The white and purple belt that runs through the artwork is representative of the Two Row Wampum Treaty, an agreement made by the Haudenosaunee people and European settlers symbolizing a mutual agreement to coexist peacefully and with respect for each other's differences. In response to this year's theme, Rhythms of the City, the hands featured in the artwork are signing "Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, Do" in American Sign Language.

  Liam Winslow is a non-indigenous artist working in partnership with Enaahtig Healing Lodge & Learning Centre.

  Artist Bio

  Liam Winslow is a multidisciplinary artist based in Simcoe County. His work spans several mediums and includes illustration, painting, poetry, and large scale murals. Liam is an avid trail runner, traveller, and lover of nature.

  Connect with Liam

  • liamwinslow.com
• Rhythmic Groovery | Michael & Marion’s

  • Artist: Sheresha Mcintyre
  • Location: Michael & Marion’s, 89 Bayfield Street
  • Medium: Analog collage to digital on Alu panel
  • Year completed: 2026
     

  Artist Statement

  This work is a reflection of community in motion — bright, bold, and warm. It draws on aspects of Barrie’s culture to show how rhythm lives beyond music; it lives in movement, in shared energy, and in how we experience togetherness. The analog collage imagery connects some of Barrie’s most treasured summer traditions — from classic auto shows and busking on Dunlop, to the Barrie Jazz & Blues Festival. Travelling along the sides of the property, this installation inspires an immersive experience with a hint of Surrealism.

  Artist Bio

  Artist, photographer, and curator Sheresha Mcintyre expresses her unique take on many themes in each of her disciplines. Working predominantly with analog collage, Mcintyre pulls influence from plants, nature, culture, and her own imagination to show how our “reality” can be fragmented and rearranged. She aims to connect to her audience through an experience of oneness, igniting a collective ambition with the observer to tap into the brightest and most exciting parts of themselves.

  Connect with Sheresha

  • Instagram @collaji.p.henson

• Patchwork Places | Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery

  • Artist: Ashlyn Mundy
  • Location: Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery, 107 Dunlop Street East
  • Medium: Acrylic latex paint on wooden panels
  • Year completed: 2026 
     

  Artist Statement

  This installation includes four sets of quilted micro-murals each depicting the urban and rural duality of the city of Barrie, which combines the energy of a downtown-nightlife-city with the feeling of still being connected with nature through green spaces and the waterfront of Kempenfelt Bay. Each quilted square is inspired by one of the four elements and each element is directly represented by an aspect of Barrie, including the lakefront location, the nightlife and downtown energy, the tourism, and natural landscapes of the city. 

  Artist Bio

  Ashlyn Mundy is a mural artist and illustrator from Keswick, ON who studied Illustration at OCAD University and graduated in 2020 with a Bachelor of Design. For the past six years she has honed her craft into mural artistry and the public arts. In her own practise she creates fun, playful illustrations that incorporate bright colours and intricate details to build visual interest.

  Connect with Ashlyn

  • ashlynmundy.format.com
  • Instagram @ashlyn.mundy.art
• Scales of the City | Homestead Artisan Bakery + Café

  • Artist Team: BRIGHT 3 MacLaren Art Centre Youth Partnership by Nellie Bishop, Kathleen Reeve, Hanna Burak, Riley Alliman, Marko McKay, Katharine Keeping and January Paige (Artist Mentor)
  • Location: Homestead Artisan Bakery, 80 Dunlop Street East
  • Medium: Acrylic Paint on Plywood
  • Year completed: 2026
     

  Artist Statement

  Scales of the City is inspired by the rhythmic aspects of nature and community that appears within Barrie’s downtown waterfront. Centred around the cyclical patterns of night and day, Scales of the City honors the moon and sun as they set the tone for the activities that happen throughout this area. Scales of the City also acknowledges how music heavily influences Barrie’s downtown core and adds to these cyclical rhythms whether it’s the song of a bird heard in the day or the song a DJ plays in a dance club at night.