Over the years, Gustavo Jabbaz has developed a unique style of urban photography. In his own words, he finds a spot that appeals to him and amplifies it across the viewers field of vision. Instead of capturing space in a particular moment in time these images capture time through a particular space.<\/p>\n\n\n
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<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nGustavo Jabbaz, Looking for Sky<\/em>, Panel 3<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stepping into the gallery the piece that captures our immediate attention is a sixteen-foot collage of buildings around the city\u2014an almost recognizable stretch of the downtown core that has never existed. The images are presented in an arched shape reminiscent of renaissance chapels, but the effect is closer to Gaudi\u2019s work\u2014pulling the viewer into a manufactured environment around us. In its own distinctly urban way this artwork imitates a canopy of trees refracting light in a way that has been scientifically considered by the artist. The composition itself covers an entire wall of the gallery giving viewers the perspective of lying in the middle of a downtown road. While moving around the room, the piece seem to be playing with our senses and our perception of proximity.<\/p>\n\n\n Installation view of Gustavo Jabbaz, Looking for Sky<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Across from this photograph, images of pedestrians printed on transparencies are hung. The building in these images becomes a faint whisper around the people passing through these urban places\u2014the temporary becomes the central point. This focus on movement and the momentary is further emphasized by the ability of the panels of the collage to move within the space.<\/p>\n\n\n Installation view of Gustavo Jabbaz, Looking for Sky<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Stepping through a doorway into the next room you enter a \u2018gallery of faces.\u2019 Joachim Oepkes has three installations on display as part of his series, Stilled Moments<\/em>. His work, as he says, appropriates images he finds around world and then pulls them out of context; forcing the viewer to create their own interpretations and re-examine their knowledge. Two of his pieces are from a recent trip to London, England.<\/p>\n\n\n Installation view of Joachim Oepkes, Stilled Moments<\/em>, Faces<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another shows a pandemic narrative of Toronto, filtered through several lenses and then presented back to us, creating a sort of visual broken telephone and challenging our understanding of collective narratives.<\/p>\n\n\n Joachim Oepkes, Stilled Moments<\/em>, Face the Truth<\/p>\n\n\n\n When walking through the gallery he told me about his trip to the final resting place of many Knights Templar, the inspiration for his artwork Grotesques<\/em>. He was looking at the graves when he noticed distorted, agitated sculptured heads staring out at him from the walls\u2014representations of a purgatorial state. This story, among other pieces of his art, illustrates how our perception is shaped by narratives.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n