Art In The Square Curated by MakeRoom Inc.
Sankofa Square introduced a new layer of public art across the site, transforming 24 everyday pieces of public infrastructure, including 14 benches and 10 waste bins, into vibrant, human-scale artworks that enhance the public space.
Curated by MakeRoom Inc., Art in the Square brings work from four artists to the space through an open call process that received more than 150 submissions and was selected by a community-led jury.
The project reflects a broader commitment to strengthening social infrastructure within the Square, creating a safe space for pause, connection, and everyday experience.
MEET THE ARTISTS BEHIND THE TRANSFORMATION
Sharn Bassi
Toronto-based visual artist Sharn Bassi brings a bold, botanical lens to the Square, working across painting, murals, and digital illustration. Her work explores identity, memory, and cultural inheritance through layered abstraction and vibrant colour. Her piece, Shared Ground, reflects the quiet coexistence between people and wildlife in Toronto, with foxes, raccoons, birds, and native plants forming a continuous urban ecosystem.
Apanaki Temitayo
Apanaki Temitayo is a Toronto-based artist and facilitator whose work transforms African textiles into a powerful visual language rooted in Afro-Caribbean identity. Through layered collage, she explores memory, resilience, and ancestral presence. Her installation, Oju Olorun: What Sees Us, draws from Yoruba cosmology and the concept of the “Eye of God,” a gaze that sees beyond the visible. Using rhythm, pattern, and colour, the work invites visitors to pause, feel seen, and consider their place within a shared, living history.
Chantelle Dorafshani
Mississauga-based Filipino-Persian illustrator Chantelle Dorafshani brings a vibrant, community-driven perspective to the Square. A recent graduate of Sheridan’s Illustration program, her work blends traditional and digital techniques to explore identity, nature, and connection. Her design transforms benches and bins into bursts of colour, where organic shapes and human forms intertwine, reflecting Sankofa Square as a place to gather, grow, and celebrate Toronto’s diverse communities.
Adams Kofi Amaning
Toronto-born, Ghanaian-Canadian artist and creative director Adams Kofi Amaning creates layered visual narratives that explore identity, diaspora, and cultural continuity. His work blends design, storytelling, and global influences to bridge past and present. His piece reinterprets traditional Kente cloth, drawing on the OBAAKOFO MMU MAN pattern, meaning “one person does not rule a nation.” By merging this historic motif with Toronto iconography, the work becomes a living pattern of connection, honouring heritage while reflecting the city’s evolving cultural identity.