Colossal hands, driftwood waves, and shimmering ice lenses are about to transform Toronto’s shoreline into a surreal winter wonderland.
For over a decade, Winter Stations has been a staple experience of the city’s coldest months, turning the desolate lifeguard stations on the snow-covered stretches of Woodbine Beach into an incredible outdoor art gallery. Starting Family Day Monday, the international design competition returns for its 12th year to prove that the beach isn’t just for the summer.
This year’s theme, Mirage, challenges artists and architects to play with the line between what is seen and what is real. In an era dominated by AI and digital screens, these five winning installations aim to pull us away from our phones and back into a shared, physical reality, even if that reality looks a little bit like an illusion.
The winning installations you’ll get to explore for 2026 include the following:
- Embrace (Will Cuthbert, Canada): A 12-foot-tall sculpture of colossal hands that shifts and disappears depending on where you stand.
- Crest (University of Waterloo School of Architecture and the Department of Architectural Engineering, Canada): From a distance, it looks like a simple pile of driftwood, but as you approach, it reveals itself as a massive, sweeping wave caught in the moment before it breaks.
- Chimera (Denys Horodnyak & Enzo Zak Lux, Germany & Ukraine): A structure covered in fisheye mirrors that distorts your reflection into a constellation of selves.
- Glaciate (TMU & Ming Chuan University): A corridor of polycarbonate panels filled with lake water that freezes and thaws, creating natural “ice lenses” that blur the iconic red lifeguard stands.
- Specularia (Tornado Soup: Andrew Clark, USA): A pavilion with openings cut to the proportions of social media feeds, framing the lake and sky in ways that make you question distance and direction.
The exhibition is completely free to visit, making for the perfect excuse to bundle up for a lakeside stroll. While the lakefront might be chilly, the installations are designed to be interactive, inviting you to climb, explore, and see the city’s horizon through a whole new lens.
Winter Stations 2026 officially launches on February 16 and will remain on display at Woodbine Beach until March 30. You can explore the art all day, every day, making it one of the most accessible ways to catch some culture this season.