Call it a vibrant act of amends for a dark mistake.

More than two dozen graffiti artists were invited to an alley near Ossington and Queen streets Sunday to restore colour and form to a line of garages and walls that were painted mostly black in mid-September in a street art scandal ironically organized by a local group committed to laneway beautification.

The black paint — sprayed liberally across 26 garages by a U.K. artist hired by Toronto’s not-for-profit Laneway Project — covered over work by local artists dating back to 2012 that had transformed a once inconspicuous Queen West laneway into an urban artscape.

Reviews of the artistic blackout could be graciously described as negative.

“It sucks. It shouldn’t have happened,” said Steve Ferrara, who curated the street art that first appeared in the laneway in 2012 and was back Sunday to oversee the redo at the request of the chastened Laneway Project. “To think it’s cool to paint over 20 established pieces is beyond me. But the good that comes from it is seeing the community come together to make things right.”

The Laneway Project, which had intended to improve the alley with better lighting, greenery and murals, says the project was botched by a contractor. Apologies to residents and artists commenced shortly after — along with a commitment to restore the original artistry.

Michelle Senayah, the Laneway Project’s executive director, said she was as surprised as anyone when the blackout happened since the project plans were clear and restrictive.

“The day it happened, we fired the curator and took control of this space.”

Senayah, who was at the art-creation gathering Sunday, won’t name the curator or say whether her group is taking any further legal action. Sunday’s repainting will cost “tens of thousands” of dollars, she said.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

A street artist who goes by the name EGR was among the spray-can-toting artists who converged Sunday to put a fresh coat over past mistakes.

“I was shocked,” she says of learning about the black coverup in September which removed her previous work altogether — a piece she had returned to touch up on occasion.

EGR was repainting the very same garage door canvas she painted back in 2012, this time featuring a scene of two women locked in a kiss.

Erin (Rock) Zimerman, another artist who came to restore his own artistic stamp to the space after his original 2012 piece was hidden under black paint, said the move was a breach of the street art code.

“There are places in every major city around the world where you can go and paint and it will be painted over in a week. It’s understood. It’s happened to me and I get it ... We have those places here in Toronto too. But this isn’t one of them.”