A New Horizon by Gavin W Sewell anchors Toronto's skyline within layered fields of collage and texture. Commissioned for BBS Law in Old Toronto and completed in 2026, this 48 × 72-inch mixed-media work positions the city's recognizable towers—including the CN Tower—against a sky that shifts from deep periwinkle to warm cream. The composition balances photographic clarity with gestural abstraction, allowing the architectural forms to emerge from and dissolve into surrounding mark-making.
Sewell constructs the piece through intersecting planes of acrylic, collage fragments, and worked surfaces that create visual depth without illusionistic space. Ochre, burnt sienna, and grey-brown tones warm the foreground, while whites and pale yellows soften the midground. Text fragments and geometric overlays punctuate the composition, introducing human scale and material complexity to what might otherwise read as a straightforward cityscape.
The lower half fragments into abstraction—stacked collage elements, weathered papers, and cream-colored grounds suggest foundations or depths beneath the skyline. Vertical brown bands traverse the full height, functioning as both structural divisions and visual anchors. This dual language of representation and abstraction allows the work to function as both a portrait of place and a meditation on layered surfaces and transformation, suiting its role within a professional interior environment.
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