A meditation on suburbia at Oakville Galleries, from 17 November 2007 to 20 January 2008.

Is there a there there? examines the suburban phenomenon - not unlike what’s currently being experienced in suburbs just like Oakville. Gertrude Stein once wrote of her hometown of Oakland, California, “There is no there there.”

This selection of images of suburbia from the collections of the National Gallery of Canada and the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography posits a place-specific answer to this question.

This exhibit explores how post-war Canadian contemporary artists have investigated an undeniably paradoxical experience. Works depicting utopian ideals of community contrast with those revealing the menacing aspect of suburban life – tepid conformism. The artists ask challenging questions about suburbia – questions that are currently being asked by many in the suburbs of Ontario. Much of their art is invested with a political and social edge and is interwoven with motifs of surveillance, mobility, and the pursuit of capital.

Artists: Roy Arden, Philip Bergerson, Molly Lamb Bobak, Roland Brener, Tony Brown, Robin Collyer, Susan Dobson*, Isabelle Hayeur*, Geoffrey James, Ken Lum, Euan Macdonald, David McMillan, N.E. Thing Co., Stephen Shore and Jeff Wall.