Ry Van Der Hout has been selected by the City of Toronto to create permanent integrated public artwork for three pedestrian bridges in the Parkdale neighbourhood — Dowling, Dufferin, and Dunn — as part of their upcoming replacement within the Gardiner Expressway corridor.
The commission, awarded through a peer review panel of Parkdale community members and art experts, embeds Van Der Hout within the engineering design team from the earliest stages of the project. Rather than applying art to finished infrastructure, the work will be developed as an integral part of the bridges themselves — informed by the artist's longstanding practice with stained glass, fragmented materials, and transmitted light.
Van Der Hout has lived in Parkdale for over thirteen years. The three bridges serve as visual gateways for those entering downtown Toronto along the rail corridor, Gardiner Expressway, and Lakeshore Boulevard, and will join the City's Public Art & Monuments Collection upon completion.
Construction is anticipated to begin in 2028.
Van Der Hout holds an MFA from Parsons at The New School and a BFA in Photography from Toronto Metropolitan University. Recent honours include the 2026 Barbara Spohr Fellowship at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, a residency at La Napoule Art Foundation in France, and past public art commissions for NYC Parks, the City of Toronto, and Nuit Blanche.
