Toronto Winter Stations Exhibition 2026

The design competition has been completed and the artistic and architectural installations have been built along the water's edge of Woodbine Beach as part of Toronto Winter Stations. Beginning in 2015 the non-profit, international competition tries to place four to six installations each year in the Beaches - an open air, free to attend art festival. After reviewing and approving the submissions, winners are given a budget for construction and a small monetary prize with the installations exhibited from February's Family Day until the end of March (February 16 to March 30, 2026).

This year features five winners which competed under the theme of Mirage as described by the Winter Stations organization, "A mirage is a shimmer at the edge of reality, appearing real only to dissolve when approached. The present moment feels much the same, bent and distorted by the rise of digital silos and artificial intelligence, where the truth we seek is always shifting."

My favourites for 2026 include Embrace as well as Chimera, however they are all worth the visit to the eastern beaches and I always look forward to the escape from winter's grey hold on the psyche. Here are the winners with insight by the creatorsdesigners.

"Colossal hands, reaching out. To hold the horizon. To present the day.

An invitation to behold and to be held. Welcome their embrace. Change your point of view."

Embrace by Will Cuthbert (Canada)

"Moving closer – the illusion unravels, revealing the framework that sustains it. In this encounter, the viewer meets their own reflection multiplied and displaced, a shifting constellation of selves that provokes an uneasy awareness of being observed."

Chimera by Denys Horodnyak & Enzo Zak Lux (Germany & Ukraine)

See more of the installations after the jump.

"Crest emerges from the sand and snow of the Toronto Beaches as a sweeping wave positioned moments before break. From afar, the installation resembles a mere pile of driftwood washed up on the beach."

Crest by University of Waterloo School of Architecture and the Department of Architectural Engineering (Canada)

"One of the openings reveals the truth, while the others show mirages, pieces of the surroundings, stripped of context, confusing distance and direction. Through periscope-like mirrors, set at 45-degree angles, those who pass through experience the ground, the sky, the boardwalk, and themselves before finally seeing the true image ahead of them: the lifeguard chair and the lake."

Specularia by Tornado Soup: Andrew Clark (USA)

"A series of vertical polycarbonate panels, filled with water from the lake nearby, creates a set of ice lenses that glaciate the stand. As the lake water freezes and thaws, the panels cycle through phases of transparency, translucency, and full opacity."

Glaciate by Toronto Metropolitan University Department of Architectural Science in collaboration with Ming Chuan University School of Design (Canada & Taiwan)

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