Introducing 'City Before Our Eyes'
By Ellie Buttrose
'City Before Our Eyes' March 2026
Urban architecture has long provided artists with a lens through which to explore both utopian and dystopian visions of society. ‘City Before Our Eyes’ presents paintings, videos and sculpture from the QAGOMA Collection that span the full spectrum of metropolitan life – from dizzying tower-block vistas, and the alienation of bleak offices and cramped living quarters, to the everyday magic of cosmopolitan existence.
An view of 'City Before Our Eyes', with video works installed in the foreground and glimpses in the background of Aditya Novali's The Wall: Asian Un(real) Estate Project 2018 (Purchased 2018 with funds from Tim Fairfax AC through the QAGOMA Foundation) and Jenny Watson's Sleeping in New York 1991 (Purchased 1992 under the Contemporary Art Acquisition Program with funds from Feez Ruthning, Solicitors & Notaries through the QAG Foundation), GOMA Media Lounge, March 2026 / © The artists / Photograph: C Callistemon, QAGOMA
Once imagined as a place where dreams could be realised and individuals could transform their lives, the city now embodies harsher realities: competing for jobs, insecure housing and exhausting commutes. These pressures have inspired artworks that convey a sense of grime, claustrophobia and relentless pace. When depicting the vast scale of cities, artists frequently play with perspectives untethered from the ground, ranging from fantastical visions of buildings in the sky to vertigo-inducing vantage points.
Amid this immensity, small moments of absurdity and delight emerge for those attentive to their surroundings. Such vignettes are often captured with portable cameras, which opened new possibilities for artists to respond intimately and spontaneously to urban life. Since the 1960s, the growing accessibility of video recording devices has also enabled artists to practise inexpensively, even as the costs of city living climbed skywards.
A view of 'City Before Our Eyes' (l–r): Thukral & Tagra's Dominus Aeris – The Great, Grand Mirage 2009 (The Kenneth and Yasuko Myer Collection of Contemporary Asian Art. Purchased 2010 with funds from Michael Sidney Myer through the QAG Foundation), Dede Eri Supria's Labyrinth (from 'Labyrinth' series) 1987–88 (The Kenneth and Yasuko Myer Collection of Contemporary Asian Art. Purchased 1993 with funds from The Myer Foundation and Michael Sidney Myer through the QAG Foundation) and Louise Forthun's Luscious 1993 / Purchased 1997 with funds from Queensland Cement Limited through the QAG Foundation), GOMA Pavilion Walk, March 2026 / © The artists / Photograph: C Callistemon, QAGOMA
