Life in a Concrete Jungle

Erin McIvor

Spring 2013

ART 2003C-03

Gallery Layout

My art gallery will be arranged as a hallway traversing an arc. The art will line both walls of the hallway, with the pieces being arranged alternating walls (that is, the first piece is as you enter on your right, the second is opposite it on your left, the third is next to the first piece on your right again, the fourth opposite that, etc.). The art is not arranged by artist, but by the increasing presence of nature in the piece. The first works, then, are almost exclusively bleak cityscapes with only a touch of a sign of life, but as the viewer progresses they become more and more consumed by images of the natural. The layout is designed to increase this feeling, as the viewer is surrounded by these images and walks through them as though they are walking from an almost purely lifeless city to one engulfed by nature and life. The exhibit is not about the artists, who worked over different time periods, media, and locations, but about the connection between these few pieces of their work and the theme that they share.

Welcome to Life in a Concrete Jungle

(Exhibition Text)

Life in contemporary times has thrust us into the city. We spend so much of our time surrounded by buildings and sidewalks and automobiles that we start to think that this world is all there is, or is natural for us to live in. Life has a way of breaking through our constructed reality and reminding us otherwise, and these artists have noticed that.

There are Henri Matisse's simplified paintings of Euorpean cities and people, Jeff Wall's often harsh view of the reality of city life, David Hockney's eclectic but lively and hyperreal paintings and collages, Henri Cartier-Bresson's iconic black and white photographs of a barren-yet-hopeful world, and Martin Lewis' stark portrayals of New York City from every angle. These artists have shown us here how, given the opportunity, life will find its way into our world, whether in the form of people or plants, and restore beauty to our surroundings.