‘The Colony’: Kent Monkman’s first public sculpture, a bronze ‘palace’ for beavers in Toronto

A bronze and steel ‘condominium’ inhabited by beavers is now part of Toronto’s landscape. Cree artist Kent Monkman, known for his figurative paintings that revisit the colonial history of Western art, has created his first public sculpture, ‘The Colony’ (2026), which has been unveiled as a permanent installation in the Port Lands, Toronto’s regenerated waterfront in Canada, as USA Art News reports (according to The Art Newspaper).

The arched structure, about 12 feet (3.6 m) high, shelters beavers of around 4 feet (1.2 m) in and around it: beavers leaping, reading, playing drums, while one of them looks through a telescope — a reference to Indigenous star stories. The design of the work is based on an 18th-century engraving by Veremondo Rossi, depicting beavers in an apartment-like structure.

For Monkman, the beaver carries a deep historical symbolism. The animal was once the ‘currency’ of the fur trade; Franco-British competition and the role of Indigenous peoples marked an era that colonisation ultimately destroyed, wiping out beaver populations. ‘Humour makes us Cree, makes us human,’ the artist stresses, for whom humour is a key element of the work.

The work was commissioned for the Lassonde Art Trail, a 2.5-mile art trail that is part of the C$1.4 billion regeneration of the Port Lands — a project that includes the new island in Biidaasige Park and the relocation of the mouth of the Don River. Philanthropist Pierre Lassonde donated C$25 million to the trail; of the 17 inaugural works, only Monkman and Joana Vasconcelos have permanent pieces. The sculpture was made by the local foundry MST Bronze.

‘That’s essentially what beavers do — they redirect water, create ecosystems,’ says Monkman, inviting viewers to think about Indigenous knowledge and the Indigenous presence on the land.