Winter Stations has announced the five winning entries whose designs will be displayed on Woodbine Beach in the 12th year of the outdoor art installation.

Winter Stations will open on Family Day weekend, with the official launch on Monday, Feb. 16, and continue until the end of March.

The winners of this year’s competition are Embrace (Canada); Crest (University of Waterloo); Specularia (United States); CHIMERA (Germany/Ukraine); and Glaciate (Toronto Metropolitan University).

“This year’s theme, Mirage, invited artists and designers from around the world to submit proposals for installations that play with the boundary of what is seen and what is real in the age of AI, and explore public art as infrastructure that gathers people in shared reality,” said a Jan. 27 news release from Winter Stations announcing the winners.

Winter Stations has been displaying outdoor art installations on Woodbine Beach since 2015, and has become a launching pad for new ideas in public art. Winners receive full materials, fabrication labour, and a $2,000 honorarium to support what is often designers’ first public art installation.

Every year, the hundreds of submissions are reviewed by a jury. This year’s jury was made up of Jason Thorne, Katriina Campitelli, Alana Mercury, Luisa Ji, and Janna Hiemstra.

Winter Stations are made possible by RAW Design, kg&a, Northcrest Developments, City of Toronto, Mechanical Contractors Association of Ontario, Ontario Association of Architects, MicroPro Sienna, Feeley Group, Sali Tabacchi Brand & Design, and Meevo Digital.

Click the button below to view the installations that will be on display along Woodbine Beach starting next month.