The Shape of Cities is a group exhibition of 20th century paintings and sculptures, alongside 19th century historic prints from the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia’s permanent collection.

From resource extraction to construction, the expansion of our cityscapes has shaped our creative paths as much as we have shaped our surrounding environments. This exhibition explores the impact of 20th century urban and rural industrial landscapes on artistic expression, both in historic prints and cartography, and in schools of art including Impressionism, Modernism, Abstract Expressionism and Folk Art.

How have shifting urban environments and landscaping of our natural world around us affected our artistic output? In what cases has art been used to document history, remember our past, and to provoke change? How does it inspire further understanding of ourselves and our neighbours as we move forward? How do our relationships with our urban spaces affect our collective well-being?