Eryn O'Neill | Visualizing Urban Transformation 
June 6–20 

Reception: June 6, 3–5 pm 
RSVP your attendance to responses@wallspacegallery.ca 

Presales are open Saturday, May 30 @ 10 am, in-person, e-mail and via phone at 613-729-0003. If you would like to preview an artwork before collecting it, please contact the gallery at info@wallspacegallery.ca

Wall Space Gallery presents Visualizing Urban Transformation, a new series of paintings by Eryn O’Neill that examines the infrastructure and materials embedded within changing urban environments. Construction fencing, traffic cones, barriers, and industrial containers are easy to overlook, yet they continually redirect movement and reshape public space.

The work begins with the artist moving through the city on foot. Construction sites, detours, and shifting neighbourhoods become places of close observation, where colour, texture, and interruption start to stand out through repetition. Photographs gathered during these encounters later inform paintings that combine gestural brushwork with structured lines and layered surfaces. Rust, scratches, faded paint, and worn materials remain visible throughout the work, preserving the marks left by exposure, labour, and continual use.

Rather than presenting construction zones as purely disruptive spaces, O’Neill focuses on their visual presence and physical structure. Orange safety barriers, temporary fencing, patched asphalt, and weathered metal surfaces appear throughout the paintings with an unexpected sense of rhythm and balance. Removed from the movement and noise of the street, these materials begin to feel almost sculptural, revealing patterns and relationships that are easy to miss in everyday life.

Throughout the exhibition, the city appears unfinished and in constant adjustment. Detours, repairs, and temporary structures become part of the visual language of urban life rather than interruptions to it. Visualizing Urban Transformation reflects on these transitional spaces and the ordinary materials that shape the experience of moving through the city.

Curator
Haruka Toyoda

Featured work:
Bus Stop, Oil on canvas
Bike Racks (Westboro), Oil on canvas