One of the great things about art is how it can take something as simple as a person walking down a street and turning it into something beautiful. According to Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (AGGV) curator Steven McNeil, that’s exactly what the exhibit The Street does with its subject matter.
“The Street is an exhibition that focuses on artists’ representation of the street and urban themes throughout art history,” says McNeil. “It includes photographs, paintings, prints, and videos, and it has a great focus on contemporary Canadian photography but it also includes some historical works, and it really lets viewers think about the way artists have engaged with urban street in their work. It’s really one of the prime subjects for artists throughout time.”
McNeil says that the exhibition—curated by Grant Arnold at the the Vancouver Art Gallery with additional works from AGGV selected by McNeil—tackles themes of conflict and artistic observation.
“There are three main themes in this exhibition; the first one is poetry and the street,” he says. “And in that section, which is the largest section, it really shows how artists interact with the beauty of observations on the street. There is a section on conflict and the street, with some more difficult works to look at, but works that are very thought-provoking that look to the relationship artists have in interpreting major conflicts in the world within their works of art. And then… it’s order and the street, and in that section it really looks to the way artists look at the way cities are organized and how that plays out in works of art.”
The Street offers many different viewpoints, says McNeil.
“It’s very easy to stand in front of a work in this exhibition and imagine the artist’s actual viewpoint in taking in the scene around them, and I think it has a wonderful connection and resonance for people who enjoy taking photographs themselves, and thinking about how they’d shoot the angle and the subject matter they want to photograph,” he says. “So, there’s a wonderful connection to viewers with this exhibition.”
McNeil says that the main thing he would like people to get out of The Street is the many different ways a street can be interpreted.
“I’d like people to take away that the street can be thought about in many different ways,” he says. “And that the street has always been a subject throughout art history. And to think about how the urban environment and people’s interactions with the street have really shaped their own thought processes, their own experiences of everyday life.”
McNeil loves how art shapes our viewpoint of the world.
“I love how art can connect us with what’s happening in the world and make us think about our place in the world,” he says. “Whether it be how you see yourself fitting into your own community or what’s happening in the news. I think that art is such a great way of making people think about the world they exist in, and how they fit into it.”
The Street
Until Sunday, September 3
Art Gallery of Greater Victoria
aggv.ca